Posts by WonkoTheSane

Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols closes hailing frequencies

Re: UK Born in 1966

Walter Koenig (Chekov) is still with us.

NASA's Lunar Orbiter spots comfortably warm 'pits' all over the Moon

Re: MAAS

Vowels were in short supply during the early years of the 11th Century

Just because you failed doesn't mean you weren't right

Re: Wow!!

The calibration officers (and the bombing range) were both in Italy, according to the story.

First-ever James Webb Space Telescope image revealed

Everything in the pic with one of those is a star inside our galaxy.

Everything in the pic without one is an entire other galaxy!

Re: Can someone smarter than me...

Ask your favourite search engine about "Gravitational Lensing"

Re: Wow!

Even the official Doctor Who twitter channel is having those flashbacks!

RISC OS: 35-year-old original Arm operating system is alive and well

I haz one

There's a RiscPC StrongARM sitting on a shelf in my mancave study.

Haven't tried to start it in ages though. Bet the battery has eaten its way through the PCB by now.

Wi-Fi hotspots and Windows on Arm broken by Microsoft's latest patches

Re: Testing?

Back when we had to buy an OS on physical media, the T&Cs were inside the shrink-wrapped box.

Know the difference between a bin and /bin unless you want a new doorstop

Re: Fail

For next time, you might like to read up on the usage of "chroot"

Tough news for Apple as EU makes USB-C common charging port for most electronic devices

Re: Optional Chargers

I recently got a Pixel 6. No charger in the box.

Logitech's MX Mechanical keyboard, Master 3S mouse

Re: Handy, then, that Logitech appears to have all bases covered?

For Linux, use Solaar to manage Logitech mice and keyboards.

BOFH: Where do you think you are going with that toner cartridge?

Re: HP Laserjet 5

"Even (and this was a surprise to me) prints from my wife's Apple gear, using my Linux desktop as an Apple print server."

IIRC, Apple are a major code contributor to CUPS.

When management went nuclear on an innocent software engineer

In the late 1970's, I went on a school trip to Trawsfynnydd power station in Snowdonia.

No "interesting" activity going on while we were there, but they still had us stick our hands in the detectors on the way out.

Interestingly, it seems that Boris is now talking about building new reactors at both sites.

Re: Don’t know about you

I would've gone for a dumpster full of broken glass and full nappies.

Surf the web from your parked Renault: Vivaldi comes to OpenR

Re: Don't get it

You just described the VW Up! after its 2016 refresh, when they replaced the optional satnav with a phone dock.

Megane specs kneecapped for UK models.

Sadly, it seems that Renault have replaced the 12-inch infotainment screen mentioned in the article, with a 9-inch version on all UK spec trim levels.

They've also removed the "smart" digital rear view mirror that is absolutely essential, given the ultra-widescreen proportions of the rear glass.

TL;DR - Will not be buying one.

Thinnet cables are no match for director's morning workout

Re: Full names please.......

"I swear one of them had the name 'Hugh Jass' as one of the members... sorry, stars."

Congratulations! There is no need to go to Specsavers next week.

It did indeed say that.

BOFH: Something's consuming 40% of UPS capacity – and it's coming from the beancounters' office

Re: You'd have thought that pros would do it better...

Bunch of cowboys!

In IT, no good deed ever goes unpunished

Ah, Scotty's Rule

Not to dis your diskette, but there are some unexpected sector holes

Re: Such memories...

You missed diskettes stapled into reports, and sticking the floppy to a filing cabinet with a fridge magnet.

IoT biz Insteon goes silent, smart home gear plays dumb

Re: Home Automation is the Future (cont)...

Same.

Mine is now just a display for a Sky box & Amazon Firestick

Buying a USB adapter: Pennies. Knowing where to stick it: Priceless

Re: Never ...

obligatory

Youtube link

IT blamed after HR forgets to install sockets in new office

Re: Business as usual

Don't you mean unicorn-shit?

Lightweight Linux distribution Slax rides again with v11.2

Slax is bax?

I'll get my -->

UK.gov threatens to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

Re: Dead Cat

Exactly. Some companies (my own corporate overlords included) REQUIRE using a VPN to work remotely.

Bouncing cheques or a bouncy landing? All in a day's work for the expert pilot

Re: Serial to VGA? All you need is an adapter!

I believe the technical term for that is a "Clue by four"

Crack team of boffins hash out how e-scooters should sound – but they need your help*

Missing options

* The sound of George Jetson's flying saucer.

* Jeremy Clarkson shouting "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at its new home – an orbit almost a million miles from Earth

That's been asked so often, that they posted this last July:-

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/james-webb-space-telescope-testing-progress-continues

James Webb Telescope launch delayed again, this time by weather

Seen on the twitters

Just

Wait

Space

Telescope

Prisons transcribe private phone calls with inmates using speech-to-text AI

Re: Just say

Or, name check little Bobby Tables to start.

https://xkcd.com/327

What a bunch of bricks: Crooks knock hole in toyshop wall, flee with €35k Lego haul

Probably stolen to order

There are a number of unofficial Lego brick stores online, mostly used by people making "MOCs" (My Own Creation).

Keep an eye on stores like Bricklinkcom & Brickshop.eu for a sudden influx of stock.

A tiny typo in an automated email to thousands of customers turns out to be a big problem for legal

I believe RobLang is referring to the statement

"Time is measured by the number of learning events experienced"

The Ministry of Silly Printing: But I don't want my golf club correspondence to say 'UNCLASSIFIED' at the bottom

Re: That reminds me of the day

A true PFY would've slowly wandered across to said person's immediate superior's office, said they can't find them, and asked if the document the PFY had found on a publicly accessible printer important at all?

Re: Wood Panelled Offices

Next, pull tiles out of the bag to learn what the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything says.

BOFH: You drive me crazy... and I can't help myself

Re: Genius

"All that's missing is some quicklime"

Simon wouldn't need to bring that into the building.

It's only used at the "dropoff" point, deep in the woods 3 counties away.

Hibernating instrument on Hubble roused as engineers ponder message problem

Re: Hardware Outsourcing

Perfect job for the X37B

New World: Grindy? Check. Repetitive? Check. Fun? We hate to say it... but check

It would run via Proton, if it wasn't for "Easy Anti-Cheat".

Amazon Lumberyard is dead, long live the permissively licensed Open 3D Engine

Re: License agreement?

IIRC, when Amazon bought CryEngine 3.8 (the basis for Lumberyard), they bought it outright to do with it as they wished.

Crytek were about to launch CryEngine 5 anyway.

Jeff Bezos wants to build a business park in space

Re: Tax haven

Is this a good time to remind you that Elon has built up Tesla, SolarCity, SpaceX & The Boring Company for a single goal?

He wants to emigrate to Mars. He's even picked out Olympus Mons as his supervillain volcano lair.

"Union meetings are to be held outside"

As are bathroom breaks

BOFH: So you want to have your computer switched out for something faster? It's time to learn from the master

I feel seen

I work in a 4-person 3D CAD (Colouring And Drawing) office.

Nvidia has this month EOL'd our graphics cards (Quadro K2200) which were installed in our Dell PCs at great expense.

We got the bean counters to authorise a huge performance upgrade to A4000 cards, but they require extra power cables.

Guess what our 2018 Optiplex 7050 workstations don't have?

Now the bean counters are dragging their feet over replacing 4 complete PCs, which would cost around twice as much as the 4 graphics cards alone.

Electric car makers ready to jump into battery recycling amid stuttering supply chains

Re: Shoudl have from the start

"You have to replace electric car batteries every couple o' years or so"

So THAT'S why manufacturers are covering them by warranty for 8 years or 100,000miles / 160,000km?

I never would've guessed that!

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

That's called a "REx" - Range Extender.

The latest version of the traditional London Black Cab (LEVC TX5) is a REx, with a 63 mile electric range.

The BMW i3 electric car used to be available as a REx version, but they stopped making it due to recurring fault issues with the generator.

We have some sad news about Facebook. It has returned to the internet after six-hour mega outage

Suspicious

Isn't it interesting how this happened just as a whistleblower came forward on Facebook policies.

Anyone still remember that? Anyone? Beuller? Anyone?

I do wonder how much has been "accidentally deleted" during the downtime.

Is anyone else waiting for this event to appear on El Reg's "Who Me?" thread?

Firewalls? Pfft – it's no match for my mighty spares-bin PC

Re: This is every IT project

Also a shovel, a roll of old carpet, and a bag of quicklime.

Computer shuts down when foreman leaves the room: Ghost in the machine? Or an all-too-human bit of silliness?

Re: US domestic supply is NOT 110 volts

"These things rarely happen in sensible, small countries like UKland. We have a lot less fun."

True. That's why no-one just crashes a car in the UK nowadays, they always have to flip it upside-down.

NASA halts Mars comms for two weeks as Sun gets in way of Red Planet

Re: Comms relays?

Looks like Elon has already picked out his supervillain volcano lair on Mars.

He just liked this tweet of Olympus Mons.

ASUS patches ROG Armoury Crate app after researcher spots all-too-common flaw

There is another way

Use open source, hardware agnostic, cross-platform OpenRGB instead.

If anyone can explain why Jupiter's Great Red Spot is spinning faster and shrinking, please speak up

Re: It's caused by maths...

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS

EXCEPT EUROPA

ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE

USE THEM TOGETHER

USE THEM IN PEACE

BOFH: You'll find there's a company asset tag right here, underneath the monstrously heavy arcade machine

Re: "I'm sure we'll lose the records of it in the fire, though...""

Floods?

During "The Great Tea Trolley Disaster of '67"?