Posts by Glenn Booth

UK.gov's Verify has 'significantly' missed every target, groans spending watchdog

Re: The default way for people to prove their identity

It's kind of a good thing if they get your ID correct when they're trying to deport you as well.

National Enquirer's big Pecker tried to shaft me – and I wouldn't give him an inch, says Jeff Bezos after dick pic leak threat

Unless he wanted to get this information out before it becomes part of an 'active enquiry' and therefore give AMI an excuse to not comment. He'll have the lawyers lined up and ready to go once he's finished dragging them through the mire.

Microsoft liberates ancient MS-DOS source from the museum and sticks it in GitHub

Re: To some MSDOS was an major leap forward.

My first Unix* almost put me off for life. A Hitachi 2050 workstation (68010 based??) that booted up into some windowed Japanese UI. I had to learn the magic combination of characters that would allow me to communicate with it in something a bit like ASCII, and repeat it after every reboot. It was black magic I tell you.

* It was a HI-UX derivative, so probably not really Unix, in the POSIX compliant sense of the word.

Re: To some MSDOS was an major leap forward.

My first Unix* almost put me off for life. A Hitachi 2050 workstation (68010 based??) that booted up into some windowed Japanese UI. I had to learn the magic combination of characters that would allow me to communicate with it in something a bit like ASCII, and repeat it after every reboot. It was black magic I tell you.

* It was a HP-UK derivative, so probably not really Unix, in the POSIX compliant sense of the word.

'Men only' job ad posts land Facebook in boiling hot water with ACLU

Re: In the current environment, women are too much of a business risk..

@ratrox

Actually that's a bad example. Recently shouts of 'anti-semitism' have been loudest from anyone who doesn't much like Jeremy Corbin, be they Jewish or not.

... Aaaand that's a fifth Brit Army Watchkeeper drone to crash in Wales

If I had to continually fly over Wales, a one way, unscheduled hitting of the ground is a valid option

Cool. Let me know when you're going, I'll pay for enough fuel to get you airborne. You can manage the 'coming down' bit by yourself.

Microsoft commits: We're buying GitHub for $7.5 beeeeeeellion

Re: Shite

@AC - don't think it'll be new and exciting more like tried and trusted

Is that 'tried and trusted' in the same way that uk.guv is "strong and stable". If so, I'll pass.

Ongoing game of Galileo chicken goes up a notch as the UK talks refunds

Re: Let's not question the EU

@Dodgy Geezer we must be looking at different polls. From what I've been reading it looks as if remainers are gaining ground... https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/if-there-was-a-referendum-on-britains-membership-of-the-eu-how-would-you-vote-2/

About to install the Windows 10 April 2018 Update? You might want to wait a little bit longer

Re: Not Avast Me Hearties!

I updated while runing Avast. The update got to 24% then just... stopped. I left it overnight, no change, so I rebooted and rolled back. At the time I wasn't aware that Avast might cause problems, so I may give it another go with the AV package disabled.

Off with e's head: E-cig explosion causes first vaping death

Re: This isn't really the batteries fault

This has been labelled 'venting with flame' on a number of radio control and flashlight interest groups, and it's been fairly well documented among those groups of hobbyists. If there is no 'vent' in your e-cig, torch or other device, then you essentially have a pipe bomb.

Not such a problem if it goes wrong in an RC boat 50 metres across a pond. It's a bigger deal if you're carrying said 'pipe bomb' around in your hand, and a much nastier problem if you stick it in your mouth.

Some of the cheap, rip-off 18650 units I've seen from the far east are outrageous. Take care to buy good batteries, and charge them properly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzzfzGJpUS8

Sysadmin jeered in staff cafeteria as he climbed ladder to fix PC

Re: What is this ?

And what's the problem with a PC called Eric, may I ask?

I'm currently on my second Eric, so being Welsh this one is actually called Eric-ap-Eric. I've also owned three Alfie's and a Doris. Alfie and Doris were both Ubuntu boxes.

Amateur astronomer strikes it lucky with first glimpse of a Supernova

>> a supernova is not a variant of the venerable Vauxhall Nova GSi

No, that would be the "Millennium Nova", made (a bit) famous by Jimbo Loony in his legendary but underrated parodies of Star Wars. http://www.taffwars.com/ .

Canadian sniper makes kill shot at distance of 3.5 KILOMETRES

Re: Am I being stupid, or does this paragraph have something missing?

SI units? Pah.

How many Reg standard Linguine did the bullet have to travel? Real metrologists need to know.

Big mistake by Big Blue: Storwize initialisation USBs had malware

Re: Forward Thinking Company

The QA has been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute in India.

By a llama?

Five lightweight Linux desktop worlds for extreme open-sourcers

OK, I'll say it...

Since we've gone from 'lightweight' to 'miniscule' through the thread, I feel the need to go all the way and mention Linux From Scratch.

This is not a recommendation.

This time we really are all doomed, famous doomsayer prof says

Re: The "We're all going to die" hand-waving aside

Ah, the voice of sense.

"*FWIW, I take unreasonable exception to the phrase 'go extinct', it just doesn't sound right to me, possibly because the verb 'go' implies motion. I far prefer 'become extinct' or in the case of anthropogenic extinctions, 'be made extinct'."

I agree wholeheartedly. "Go extinct" is a really ugly phrase. I'm pleased I'm not alone.

Come with me if you want a lid: Apple bags Terminator-esque LiquidMetal mobe patent

There's prior art, surely

Star Trek's 'transparent aluminum' must have preceded this by a decade or more. I still can't give my mouse voice commands though, which is a shame.

Tales from an expert witness: Lasers, guns and singing Santas

Re: loudspeaker cones from a company that builds Formula 1 cars?

@El Presidente : This time it's a Link to where you can buy loudspeaker cones from a company that builds Formula 1 cars.

Might that be Tag Mc.Laren? Just a guess. I don't even know if they are still trading. or whether we should talk of TAG, McLaren, Audiolab or IAG.

Samsung denies benchmark cheating, despite evidence

'Twas ever thus

It's always been the same - Winmark and 3D Mark (back in the day) got abused to hell and back by graphics card manufacturers, and it happens all over other parts of the industry. I even caught one PC manufacturer replacing the cache chips on a hard drive before submitting a system for review. It ain't going away. The only thing benchmarks tell you is how fast a device runs *that* benchmark.

Hitchhikers' Guide was WRONG, Earth is not in a galactic backwater

What's with all the 'mights' and 'maybes'? Why don't they get off their podgy behinds and go for a little trip. When they get far enough away they can turn around and have a proper look at whether we're in a 'major spiral arm' or just a little spur.

I don't know...apathetic bloody planet. Can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs etc etc

FLABBER-JASTED: It's 'jif', NOT '.gif', says man who should know

Twaddle.

@TFD - It's got nothing to do with the English language. It's a name, and you can name things whatever you want - in any language you want. Or even in no language at all (like The Moron Formerly Known as Wotzisname). On top of that, it's an acronym, so all bets are off.

He named it to echo the name of some peanut butter or other.

the 'G' is soft, like in Gin.

Suck it up.

'twas ever thus

Been saying 'jif' for years (and not for the kitchen cleaner). If I ever really wanted to shine people on, I'd call it 'Compuserve Jif' (spelling changed for clarity). If I remember correctly the pronunciation was the subject of a Compuserve FAQ once upon a time.

Japan's XP migration solution: Remove network cable

Re: Got to ask

@FuzzyTheBear

You started with a 'what if?' then went to a 'just supposin'' and ended with a completely unjustified 'if X happens then Y will happen and that scares me lots'.

There comes a time when all old technology products come to the end of their useful life. XP is old. Live with it. Or do you think that MS should keep supporting it in perpetuity?

If you don't want a product that will have an 'end of support' notice at some point, I'm sure you could find some obscure open source OS that doesn't have any support in the first place. At least you'll know where you stand, eh?

Quid-a-day nosh challenge hack in bullet-hard chickpea drama

Re: I approve and award you hero of soviet union

Ok, so much kudos for spending less than a quid a day on food, but to be fair to those who regularly have to watch the pennies - how much does it cost in fuel to boil the living daylights out of those pulses for six hours?

Just sayin'.

Holly(oaks) talking head is FUTURE of face messaging, claims prof

Gee, it's come around again. Anybody remember the 'headcasting' application that once shipped with the Matrox G550 graphics card? This seems to be the great-grandson of that technology, 12 years on. It didn't catch on then, and I'd be surprised if it does this time around.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/789/3

Latest exoplanet discovery is a virtual CLONE of Earth

One of Slartibartfast's perchance?

...and will the fjords have crinkley edges?

El Reg VULTURE logo FOUND ON MARS

iOS6 maps?

> iOS6 maps or it's not true

iOS6 maps - it's not true

There. Fixed that for you.

Register SPB hacks mull chopping off feet

LOHAN is science?

> LOHAN should be entirely SI as it's Science

LOHAN is science in the same way that Megan Fox is ugly.

LOHAN is brilliant, inspired, and great fun. But it ain't science.

Re: Any more American Bashers need to vent your spleens?

> I was told by a professor once that what makes a meausrement accurate is the number of dvisions in the scale

Said Professor was wrong. Putting more divisions on the scale makes it more precise, not more accurate.

There's a difference.

Vote now for the ultimate bacon sandwich

Butter Substitute?

Bagels?

Baguettes?

Pork Loin?

Death's too good for 'em.

Glaswegian scientists snap entangled particles

Re: Am I the only one...

Yebbut surely to photograph a quantum you have to bounce other quanta of light off it, which then in turn have to end up in the camera. Isn't that what's slightly weird about this? What does the uncertainty principle have to say about that?

Cameron: We'll turn NHS patients into real-time drugs lab rats

Re: parasites

>> If the boffins have access to the data for all the patients taking that drug we should be able to spot/dismiss these things sooner.

You think that they'll give that data back to us? Not a chance.

That's not how it works. More likely they'll use it to formulate a new drug with different side effects, which they will then patent and sell for more than the old drug, all the while denying that there is anything wrong with the old drug.

Big Pharma are not charities. Just because our data the might help them build a new drug, don't expect a payback.

Welsh NHS fined £70k for patient psych file leak blunder

The Management just don't get it.

The big problem seems to be that very senior staff in the NHS - including some Chief Execs and Caldicott guardians - don't have the first clue about how to manage and process personal data appropriately. Until and unless they get fined into taking it seriously, there is a danger that they will carry on in ignorance. They seem to understand being hit in the wallet, even if it is we taxpayers that end up with the bill.

I personally know of doctors who are screaming blue murder about data being sent out of trusts without appropriate precautions, and it falls on deaf ears.

"All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal."

CD: The indestructible music format that REFUSES TO DIE

Re: CDs not compressed?

Re AC @ 08:15

DAT better than CD? Even when DAT is setup to record at 16bit, 44.1kHz? How does that work?

Even best case you can squeeze 48kHz sampling out of DAT, which extends the frequency response out to (theoretically) 24kHz minus whaterver you need for the filter slope - definitely in bat territory.

Long hours of double blind tests showed me that most people can't hear any difference when you brick wall filter music at 16kHz, so I'm not buying it.

I won't get started on what constitutes any of the various types of compression, but band limited PCM sampling at 16 bit, 44.1kHz isn't compressed in my book. At all.

MYSTERY programming language found in Duqu

No mystery...

It''s gotta be written in OOK! Stands to reason, dunnit?

Epic net outage in Africa as FOUR undersea cables chopped

Re: Oh it was a conspiracy...

AC @ 00:12

Whether they mind or not is immaterial - we don't HAVE a carrier group or two to park in the Red Sea.

Benchmarks are $%#&@!!

Been there, done that...

Still have the T-Shirt. It has "Real World Benchmarks" written across it.

I worked for a number of hardware manufacturers way back, and spent a lot of time in the labs of Ziff Davis, Future Publishing and the others. The dirty tricks used to win benchmark wars were scary. I even found one PC maker had soldered bigger cache chips to hard drives before submitting for review, Graphics card drivers would be created and distributed (to a select few) with the sole aim of being quick in a specific benchmark program (Remember 3D mark anyone?). Then all the 'optimisations' would be removed to get a driver through WHQL testing for shipping machines.

It's a game. The only thing you learn from running a benchmark is how fast that machine runs the benchmark.

Here lies /^v.+b$/i

Obfuscated Perl - obviously

Then we can have our very own little "Da Vinci Code" style drama, with which to celebrate Ms Stobs' demise.

OS X Lion paves way for "Retina Display" monitors

What's new?

Not sure what's new here - I was running three IBM T221 / Viewsonic 2290 displays (same thing, really) at 3840*2400 pixels each from a single graphics card under Linux more than five years ago. Everybody said "wow", but nobody wanted to buy it...

I don't remember the dot pitch/pixels per inch of the IBM displays, but it's definitely 'a lot'.

Phone-hack backlash BBC in embarrassing headline gaffes

@Bumpy Cat: That's not Murphy's law

It's Skitt's law. Murphy had nothing to do with it. :-)

NASA's greatest clanger

For heaven's sake...

It wasn't a moon. Not ANY moon.

Anybody who was paying attention knows full well that the Clangers lived on a small, blue PLANET. Our moon (for those who haven't been paying attention) is not blue, and not a planet. It is in fact cheese coloured, as proven beyond any reasonable doubt by Wallace and Gromit (at least pm seems to be awake).

9/10 for the story, 0/10 for successful investigative journalism.

Paris, because we'd all like to see her moon.

Over and out.

Glenn.

Doctors rally for right to call UK.gov quangonista a 'sh*t'

@Sam

> So it should read "Fucking USELESS shit"?

Almost. "Fucking USELESS VINDICTIVE shit" is closer.

Toodle pip.

Black hats attack gaping DNS hole

Well done Zen.

I didn't expect anything different, but Zen Internet's DNS services are all in the green. I hit both 212.23.3.100 and 212.23.6.100 - they've done their job; source port randomness abounds.

Toodle pip.