Posts by Uncle Slacky

Parler games: Social network for internet rejects sues Amazon Web Services for pulling plug on hosting

Re: @AC and @ Author Thank god

I hate Illinois Nazis.

Linux developers get ready to wield the secateurs against elderly microprocessors

Re: Damnit!

The similarity between ARM and 6502 isn't surprising, seeing as the Acorn team were trying to make a "better" 6502.

Linux Mint sticks by Snap decision – meaning store is still disabled by default in 20.1

Webapps?

Sounds a lot like PeppermintOS' "Ice" application for managing "Site Specific Browser" apps (which it's had for at least the last 8 years or so): https://peppermintos.com/guide/ice/

Trump silenced online: Facebook, Twitter etc balk at insurrection, shut the door after horse bolts and nearly burns down the stable

Re: Not his finest hour

Twice, in fact.

United States Congress stormed by violent followers of defeated president, Biden win confirmation halted

Re: Unfortunately ...

It looks like "sedition" fits the bill better than "treason":

https://codes.findlaw.com/us/title-18-crimes-and-criminal-procedure/18-usc-sect-2384.html

"If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, **or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States**, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both."

Suckers for punishment, we added a crawler transporter to our Saturn V

Re: Uh...

Leftpondians of a certain age will remember "Girder & Panel" sets which were great for quickly building skyscrapers and city scenes in general (then destroying them with other toys);

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girder_and_Panel_building_sets

Then there was Riviton, which was great fun, but was recalled when two kids choked on the rubber "rivets":

https://toytales.ca/riviton-from-parker-brothers-1977/

As UK breaks away from Europe, Facebook tells Brits: You'll all be Californians soon

Re: Just Wait

Spain said recently that they'd be favourable to Scotland joining the EU (as long as it's an independent country fist):

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-spain-politics-scotland/spain-would-not-oppose-future-independent-scotland-rejoining-eu-minister-idUKKCN1NP25P

https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-membership-spain-scotland/

Oh, no one knows what goes on behind locked doors... so don't leave your UPS in there

Re: Americans and tea

Lipton's is piss-weak though, no matter how long you let it brew.

Chuck Yeager, sound barrier pioneer pilot, dies at 97

Re: The right stuff, in some circumstances

IIRC weren't the plans for the M.52 given to Bell during the war as part of a rather one-sided "exchange", accounting for the similarities in the designs?

Remember Ask Jeeves? It's still alive, kinda, and Google seems keen to show it the door once and for all

Re: Geocities! The original "social network".

I thought it was the WELL - seems to be a year older than the Cleveland Freenet (1985 vs 1986):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-net

Glastonbury hippy shop Hemp in Avalon rapped for spouting 'plandemic' pseudoscience

Re: Pro-hemp, anti idiocy

They're the first *human* coronavirus vaccines, but there is already a vaccine for bovine coronvirus.

'We've heard the feedback...' Microsoft 365 axes per-user productivity monitoring after privacy backlash

Re: I don't understand

Try UBitMenu: https://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

Mysterious metal monolith found in 'very remote' part of Utah

Re: "...the Department won't reveal its location "

It seems to have been erected between 2015 and 2016 according to the photos in this thread:

https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/k01dc3/mysterious_metal_monolith_found_in_remote_utah/gdfoa9w/

The GIMP turns 25 and promises to carry on being the FOSS not-Photoshop

Re: I found the learning curve

I find Pinta on Linux (similar to Paint.NET on Windows) useful for these kinds of small jobs. Either that or an old version of Paint Shop Pro under Wine.

Panic in the mailroom: The perils of an operating system too smart for its own good

Re: Computerized billing ...

Would that include airplane cockpits?

"Ever seen a grown man naked?"

Brit Conservative Party used 10 million people's names to derive their country of origin, ethnicity and religion according to ICO report

Re: So what did they think of Boris ?

His first name is Alexander...

Need a hobby for lockdown? Perhaps check out the CMOS battery

Not any more : https://betanews.com/2005/01/25/aol-pulls-plug-on-newsgroup-service/

The Huawei Mate 40 Pro would be the best Android flagship on the market – were it not for the US-China trade war

Re: Playing Devils advocate...

I don't use online banking at all.

Re: So close, and yet so far

Something something no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism...

Re: Playing Devils advocate...

That just confirms my existing belief that Santander is a shit bank.

Re: Playing Devils advocate...

> Teams/Outlook

> My banking

You can access these via a browser, shirley?

Re: A Google free phone?

You could always access Spotify via their web site...

Trump's official campaign website vandalized by hackers who 'had enough of the President's fake news'

Re: Like a Three-Card Monte game

Like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWZbdLpLEHc

Re: A sign of the times

A compilation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4PLSPvJ9BY

Re: A sign of the times

> Listens to scientists

> Won't ban fracking

Pick one.

Big Tech's Section 230 Senate hearing was like Jack Dorsey’s beard: An inexplicable mess that needed a serious trim

Re: Engineers

Presidents who were engineers include Herbert Hoover and (arguably) Jimmy Carter.

Make of that what you will.

Is it Iran or Russia's hackers we need to worry about? The Russians, definitely the Russians, says US intelligence

Re: US health care

From the article:

"In all, the ad is saying that healthcare is personal to Joe Biden because his son died; that as a father, he believes the best and most legitimate way to honor his dead son’s legacy would be to implement further incremental regulatory reform, along the lines of what Barack Obama did; and that people who disagree and think that radical reform is necessary—among them, presumably, the 80 percent or so of Democrats who say it’s important to nominate a presidential candidate who supports Medicare for All—are dishonoring his son’s legacy. A hell of a pitch!"

If I were voting it would be for the Greens, as only they are offering M4A.

Re: US health care

That's pretty much Biden's justification for not introducing free healthcare, that doing so would somehow disrespect his dead son:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/vb5d7y/joe-biden-medicare-for-all-would-be-an-insult-to-my-dead-son

Need a new computer for homeschooling? You can do worse than a sub-£30 2007 MacBook off eBay

Re: Beware 32-bit!

I suspect that Debian/Devuan (and Slackware) will continue to support 32-bit for a long time yet (Debian still supports PowerPC, 68k and SPARC, after all!) which is why I generally recommend antiX, MX Linux or Refracta on 32-bit machines, and EXE or Q4OS for those who prefer KDE3-style retro looks.

Re: Zoom Machine...

Probably something with a Core2Duo or equivalent CPU, that can handle at least 3 or 4 Gb RAM and an SSD, so what would have been a high-end machine around 2007 or 2008. Laptops of that era often have decent (non-chiclet) keyboards, too. I have a couple of Pentium M (i.e. single-core) machines from 2006 that (IMO) are just about acceptable (running Linux) but whose limitations would probably not be tolerated by most users today.

I have a Latitude e6220 with memory maxed out and an SSD, still a very usable machine and solid as a rock. Shame about the 768p screen, though apparently it is possible to add an HD screen (the same as the Thinkpad x220) with a little jiggery-pokery.

Re: Did this with a BlackBook

No, I haven't changed the paste yet, though overheating is a known issue on these due to the lack of ventilation (Apple put in a fan but didn't think to allow the air to go anywhere).

Did this with a BlackBook

Got a black Macbook 2,1 for €20 a couple of years ago, fitted it with a new battery (another €20 from Aliexpress) and Librebooted it (it's one of the few machines that can be modified entirely in software). Currently running Trisquel Lite to keep it fully "libre". Lent it to my daughter as an emergency PC for university, though she complained about the weight...

Of course, as it's libre, there are no drivers for the webcam (a plus in my book) but you can easily attach one via USB if necessary.

The only problem is that it gets hot quite quickly - some people have drilled holes in the underside in front of the internal fan to improve ventilation, but I haven't been that brave yet.

Hey Reg readers, Happy Spreadsheet day! Because there ain't no party like an Excel party

Re: lotus

The (original) Lotus Symphony did pretty much that (badly, of course, except for the spreadsheet part).

When you're On Call, only you can hear the silence of the clicks

Re: It's not Friday the somethingth of Marchtober

Eternal September ended almost 16 years ago: https://betanews.com/2005/01/25/aol-pulls-plug-on-newsgroup-service/

Yahoo! Groups! to! shut! down! completely! on! December! 15!... Tens! mourn!

Re: egroups?

Yes, Yahoo! didn't so much launch it as buy it and rename it from "egroups". The guy who created egroups went on to create groups.io, which is where many Yahoo!(e)groups have migrated since last year's announcement.

Burning down the house! Consumer champ Which? probes smart plugs to find a bunch of insecure fire-risk tat

Re: Touchwood.

Elastic Trickery.

What, *this* Scootch? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT6yOIC6ihI

Microsoft lends Windows on Arm a hand with emulation layer to finally run 64-bit x86 apps at last

Re: .... from Benson & Hedges.

Here are the two you mention: https://youtu.be/NIckHmwZAeI?t=82

I liked the one with the Carlos Fandango super-wide wheels - though I've only just realised that it was for Panama cigars, not Hamlet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqqZ28m8uCo

Who watches the watchers? Samsung does so it can fling ads at owners of its smart TVs

Re: Likewise

It might be something to do with GDPR, meaning that they can't operate it freely in Europe?

NATO's at risk if you go your own Huawei on 5G, US government warns Germany

Re: While etc.

The US bases aren't for Europe's "protection", they're just handy forward staging posts for the US's Middle East operations. That's why the US doesn't pack up and leave.

The 2% target is for 2024, not now.

Debt doesn't matter if you're an issuer of sovereign fiat currency - read up on Modern Monetary Theory.

Help! My printer won't print no matter how much I shout at it!

Re: No Paper

What, no "Reader, I married her"?

Re: rather than slap the user around the head with an empty paper packet

> "PC Load Letter"

Obligatory Office Space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQdNbvSGok

Your latest security headache? Ed from accounting using his kid as an unpaid helpdesk

Re: Best Kept Secret

Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/627/

We're not getting back with Galileo, UK govt tells The Reg, as question marks sprout above its BS*

Re: You are joking?

The "ever closer union" was implied in the first bullet point in the government's 1975 referendum pamphlet, as well as explicitly stated in the Treaty of Rome, so we were obviously OK with it then:

http://www.harvard-digital.co.uk/euro/pamphlet.htm#5

"The aims of the Common Market are:

To bring together the peoples of Europe.

To raise living standards and improve working conditions.

To promote growth and boost world trade.

To help the poorest regions of Europe and the rest of the world.

To help maintain peace and freedom."

http://www.hri.org/docs/Rome57/Preamble.html

"Determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe"

Let's go space truckin': 1970s probe Voyager 1 is now 14 billion miles from home

"How To Serve Man"

We want weaponised urban drones flying through your house, says UK defence ministry as it waves a fistful of banknotes

Re: I don't think I'd be willing to help speed its arrival for 150k

"Mr President, we must not allow a drone gap!"

Something to look forward to: Being told your child or parent was radicalized by an AI bot into believing a bonkers antisemitic conspiracy theory

Re: convincing?

And not nearly enough ALL CAPS!!!!!one111!!!!