Posts by WonkoTheSane

Remembering when NASA stuck a Space Shuttle on top of a Boeing 747

Won't be getting this set

However, LEGO™ have just announced the winners of this quarter's IDEAs review, and those WILL be getting my moneys.

* The rocket & launch tower from Tintin's "Destination Moon"

* Godzilla (Monsterverse version)

Mine's the one with a brick separator in the pocket

Techie traced cables from basement to maternity ward and onto a roof, before a car crash revealed the problem

Your memory is in ...reasonable working order.

That is indeed a quote from PTerry's magnum opus.

Trump tariffs ruled illegal within minutes of Musk announcing end of government role

Re: Both are true

The first half of the Second Amendment at that.

They always seem to forget the bit about "as part of a well-regulated militia".

BOFH: HR tries to think appy thoughts

Re: Once again, the BOFH wins hands down

Knowing Simon, it was pickup day for the skip, and he & the PFY finished their game just in time.

Top sci-fi convention gets an earful from authors after using AI to screen panelists

Re: Where's the boot?

Maybe it's time for a few years of a "Rest of the World" version of NASFiC

(the convention that always runs in the USA whenever Worldcon is held overseas, for Americans who don't like to go "outside").

Microsoft 365 Copilot gets a new crew, including Researcher and Analyst bots

The question most often asked of "embedded" AI & LLMs in consumer products

"How do I delete you?"

Developer scored huge own goal by deleting almost every football fan in Europe

Re: Deleted nearly every football fan in Europe

That's old info.

Since Brexit, we've had to use "UK" country stickers on our cars. "GB" is no longer permitted.

Source:- https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/flags-identifiers-and-stickers

Ukrainian cars have "UA" country stickers

Users hated a new app – maybe so much they filed a fake support call

Re: Most tickets are false issues...

Those functions are classified as "madras-level" secrets.

Turn in your BOFH card immediately!

Re: Fake tickets raised in malice?

People don't hate change, they FEAR it. (It wears holes in their pocketses!)

Tech trainer taught a course on software he'd never used and didn't own

Re: been on many courses where the trainer has no answers

The old saying still applies:-

Those who can, do

Those who can't, teach

Those who can't teach, teach gym

Nuclear center must replace roof on 70-year-old lab so it can process radioactive waste

"Confident they have an alternative"

It's a tent, isn't it?

Weeks with a BBC Micro? Good enough to fix a mainframe, apparently

Re: "I think that transducer has incorrect coefficients"

The real trick is knowing which box to point at when referring to the Klystron Generator.

Don't want Copilot app on your Windows 11 machine? Install this official update

Re: "We have normality. I repeat, we have normality."

You are correct. I won't be doing that.

Amazon to kill off local Alexa processing, all voice requests shipped to the cloud

Re: Microsoft is running a surveillance scam too (well, one more)

That's what the little piece of black electrical tape is for.

Scotland now home to Europe's biggest battery as windy storage site fires up

Re: Back of the envelope

It's important to remember that Dinorwig was designed for a single purpose - to support the simultaneous switch-on of millions of kettles halfway through Coronation Street.

Re: Back of the envelope

A government can only flood so many river valleys before the people object.

BT fiber rollout passes 17 million homes, altnet challenge grows

Here in N Wales, they solved the "exchange only" lines problem by simply installing fibre cabinets directly outside the exchange.

Trump hits undo on Biden AI safety order, EV mandate, emissions standards, and more

Trump turns out to be pro "Dark Web"

One of the many pardons he issued yesterday was for Ross Ulbricht, creator of the Silk Road

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

Musk has been campaigning for the EV subsidies to be removed for a while now, because he thinks his company doesn't need them and that all the competition do.

Elon Musk's galactic ego sows chaos in European politics

Learning experience incoming

Musk needs to learn that the First Amendment doesn't apply outside the USA. A lesson that should be taught in court.

After a long lunch, user thought a cursor meant their computer was cactus

Re: Thank you El Reg

Including yours.

BOFH: Printer's festive bips herald a merry mystery for the Boss's budget

Many believe that Ryanair have already implemented this on their flights, so always be sure to go before takeoff!

Admins can give thanks this November for dollops of Microsoft patches

Re: Unexpected addition of Copilot

Sure it's not Microsofts usual trick of an uninstaller that only hides the icon?

Re: Selecting a file

The UK raises its own turkeys.

For reference, see the Reform Party.

Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed

Re: What about the animated?

Fun Fact - David Graham returned to play that incarnation of Parker too.

Re: Pedant Alert

P.W. O.R.

Tempest was indeed based on James Garner, and his copilot "Phones" was based on Red Buttons.

SpaceX Falcon 9 grounded again after second stage hits wrong part of ocean

A possible reason was visible on the livestream

At SECO, there was a vent that kept firing for several seconds afterwards, either shifting the stage off course or depleting available fuel for de-orbit. Or both.

NASA's solar sailing spacecraft is tumbling – but that's part of the plan

Thank you for pressing the button specifically for that.

Not mentioning of course, that the Germans made use of pulse jets during the closing years of the second small disagreement.

Python script saw students booted off the mainframe for sending one insult too many

I humbly direct your attention to the YouTube channel of Paweł Zadrożniak, creator of the Floppotron.

A collection of assorted computer hardware and peripherals, repurposed to produce much the similar results to your printer script

Elon Musk’s Starlink won't block Elon Musk’s X in Brazil, as required by court order

Re: Musk isn't alone

"Loads of tech companies think Internet = no country can stop me."

I think you just figured out why Musk created Starlink - "SPACE internet = no country can stop me!"

Woman uses AirTags to nab alleged parcel-pinching scum

Interesting timing

Google's shiny new "Find my device" version of Airtags just went live in the UK on Monday.

Iran named as source of Trump campaign phish, leaks

Re: Global Election Interference

Russia is a "one man, one vote" democracy

Putin is that man, and he has the vote.

Trump campaign cites Iran election phish claim as evidence leaked docs were stolen

Important question missing

Which Iranian official did Trump let use the Mar-a-Lago bathroom?

Techie told 'Bill Gates' Excel is rubbish – and the Microsoft boss had it fixed in 48 hours

Brad was saying his boss was a psych major, and was therefore not qualified to help with Brad's actual job of tech support.

Yes, I am being intolerably smug – because I ignored you and saved the project

Re: Documentation and a cheap label maker

Not quite.

It's also sometimes called Schrodinger's USB

Never put off until tomorrow what someone could erase today

Re: DAT - a technology we're sure few remember fondly

ZIP drives had it too, the drive heads would drift out of alignment over time, until the drive wrongly thought a disk was blank.

The worst part was, it was contagious. If you inserted such a corrupted disk into another drive, it too caught "Click of Death".

See this link for details

Dangerous sandwiches delayed hardware installation

The ensuing investigation:-

https://youtu.be/1Bq_abof4lg

Linux kernel 6.10 arrives with punched-up hardware support

Re: gaming support is now a factor visibly driving improvements in Linux.

Easy Anti Cheat does work on Linux, as long as the game developer using it can be bothered to tick a box telling it to.

Outback shocker left Aussie techie with a secret not worth sharing

Maybe he was a Red Lectroid from Planet 10?

Police allege 'evil twin' of in-flight Wi-Fi used to steal passenger's credentials

"unless he deliberately tried to imitate an airline free wi-fi to get credentials"

The article says he did exactly that:-

"It’s alleged the accused’s collection of kit was used to create Wi-Fi hotspots with SSIDs confusingly similar to those airlines operate for in-flight access to the internet or streamed entertainment."

BOFH: Why's the network so slow?

Re: funny

This probably won't help

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)

EU attempt to sneak through new encryption-eroding law slammed by Signal, politicians

Sadly, that cliff keeps receding into the distance.

Techie installed 'user attitude readjustment tool' after getting hammered in a Police station

Re: Yep, been there

Value engineers are accountants who only have a "minus" key on their calculator.

Re: Doors

I think I would've advised accounts to block payment altogether, as the contractor had failed to complete their contracted delivery.

We need a volunteer to literally crawl over broken glass to fix this network

Re: "This being 20 years ago now"

And of course manglement would also bring along a photographer to snap pics of them on/in front of said stand for the corporate newsletter and any trade magazine that they could convince to print it.

Command senior chief busted for secretly setting up Wi-Fi on US Navy combat ship

Re: No networks ...

Sadly, Gibbs retired to Alaska a couple of seasons ago.

However, a new series is on the schedules for September - NCIS: Origins.

Summary:- Young Leroy Jethro Gibbs starts his career as a special agent at the fledgling Camp Pendleton office, where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks.

Yes, I know they were called NIS at that time.

Re: Should be given a medal

"Maybe the one running the illegal wifi network was also the one responsible for comms security?"

That could explain why she was able to "edit an image of the ship's Starlink data usage to show less data being transferred via the satellite link"

Screwdrivers: is there anything they can't do badly? Maybe not

Re: Screwdrivers can be used for anything

I understand that adding a saw blade to a strimmer upgrades it into a brush cutter