Posts by James Wilson

Adidas now stands for All Day I'm Disconnecting All Servers as owners of 'smart' Libra scales furious over bricked kit

Re: A genuine question

Edit your online shopping list? "Alexa, take pies and cake off the Tesco order."

Faxing hell: The cops say they would very much like us to stop calling them all the time

Re: I called the cops

Only if you're getting it from Priti Patel

To test its security mid-pandemic, GitLab tried phishing its own work-from-home staff. 1 in 5 fell for it

Re: I have been caught out....

Keep reporting them. When enough people do then the InfoSec people can show the pointy-haireds and say "look, you're training your staff to get pwned, here are some examples of where that's cost companies millions". We haven't got the the point where all genuine company emails have the right domain etc. (it appears some people have worse turning circles than supertankers) but we do at least now have an intranet page listing the legit-but-dodgy-looking ones and nearly-all the genuine ones have a message in them about checking that page first. It ain't perfect but it's progress.

Caveat: I ain't an InfoSec expert, just a code monkey who likes pointing out where things are wrong.

Facebook sort-of blocks anti-quarantine events – how many folks are actually behind these 'massive' protests online?

Re: Big rant, lots of capital letters...

Well, possibly, but it depends on the numbers and the evidence. We're in to 10s of thousands already *with* the lockdowns in place, without then projections were 100s of thousands. If there's good evidence that continuing to lock down for at least several more weeks would cause millions, or even 100s of thousands, of deaths over the next few years then yes there are 2 legitimate arguments. If it's a number plucked out of thin air by people who are distressed (and yes, there are going to be a lot of people legitimately in severe distress right now), or the calculations aren't including the number that would be caused by the financial impact of letting the virus rip through the population (as that isn't going to be trivial either), then you can't say it's a lie that there is only one sensible course of action.

Yes, there are 2 arguments, but I'm going to need to hear some convincing backup before you can convince me that both are legitimate.

A paper clip, a spool of phone wire and a recalcitrant RS-232 line: Going MacGyver in the wonderful world of hotel IT

Re: Proper lash up

Like the 'temporary' speed restriction over the weak bridge on the A335. The signs put up for it suggest the expectation is that it will be in place for a while. Been a few years already I think (I haven't counted).

Watch out, everyone, here come the Coronavirus Cops, enjoying their little slice of power way too much

Re: Hack is the right word

As with pretty much everything, there are two sides. Most police are doing their best to get people to follow the guidelines & laws (there's a mixture of both) in a friendly, non-confrontational way. A small proportion will of course continue being complete arses. In the same way most of the general public are good-naturedly being considerate and doing what they can, a small proportion will continue being too thick and/or selfish and do whatever they want.

In my not-so-humble opinion the drone video was a massive fuck-up, a great example of wasting time and shooting yourself in the foot. Having a form to alert about people not playing nicely (and, shock-horror, one that's nice and simple so can be filled in quickly and easily - <fe>I'm sure there would have been plaudits had it been a hideous UI disaster</fe>) sounds like it might well be useful. Sure, there will be some people submitting it 'cos they're self-righteous gits, but also some helpful data to guide the police to people flaunting the lockdown and making it go on longer for the rest of us.

So yeah, it is a rant unfairly lumping a large group of individuals in to one block so as to complain about them, but it is Bombastic Kieran so I'm afraid par for the course. Try not to let it dampen your day, go for your one bit of outdoor exercise for the day and enjoy the fact that most people are doing their best in difficult circumstances.

As Australia is gripped by bog roll shortage, tabloid says: Here, fill your dunny with us

Re: Wash your hands as if

Wash your hands as if you just finished chopping jalapenos and need to have a piss.

It happened to a friend. No, seriously, it was a friend, but the look on his face when he returned from the bathroom was enough to teach me that lesson for life.

Brits may still be struck by Lightning, but EU lawmakers vote for bloc-wide common charging rules

Re: Hopefully the UK will follow this

Yeah, I've tried inserting a micro male connector in the dark. The wife generally isn't impressed.

What's that? USB? Oooooh right, sorry, wrong topic, you can ignore me.

The time PC Tools spared an aerospace techie the blushes

Try 'rm -rf some_directory /*'

Note the space between some_directory and the slash. Run as root.

What a complete eejit. I now make sure that muppet has the least permissions possible, and I check all his stuff thoroughly.

Yes, I am said muppet.

Judge shoots down Trump admin's efforts to allow folks to post shoddy 3D printer gun blueprints online

Re: More guns = safer for everyone

"the number of folk killed by their own* gins is very high"

Distilling is a tricky art, but I didn't realise so many people were making literally lethal booze.

Sorry, I know it's just a typo and we all make them, this one was just particularly good :-).

Hey, I wrote this neat little program for you guys called the IMAC User Notification Tool

Not an acronym but the owner of a company I used to work for had an unfortunate habit of mis-spelling 'analyse' by using an i instead of a y

Re: I almost got there..

We have a Business Services division. Cue lots of things like "Oh, that's a BS query"...

Baby alert! Japan Air lets passengers book seats far away from screaming abdabs

Re: Alitalia

Arrive Late In Turin, All Luggage In Athens

Behold the perils of trying to turn the family and friends support line into a sideline

Re: Obligatory XKCD

Ah yeah, I went straight to a 600 (CBR600 in grey, lovely bike until some b*stards nicked it) as my first bike after passing my test on a 125, as was completely normal back then. That was a steep learning curve, I don't know how I made it round my first corner.

Senior slippery sex stimulator sales exec sacked for shafting .org-asmic cyber-space place, a tribunal hears

Viagra is a "back-to-back bonking drug"?

How does that work exactly? Front-to-back I can get (on a good day) but that one's beyond me and I fail to see how even Viagra is going to help.

Smartphone SatNavs to get centimetre-perfect GNSS receivers in 2018

Re: What's the frequecny Kenneth?

+1 for the REM reference. I'll let you off the typo.

Hi Amazon, Google, Apple we might tax you on revenue rather than profit – love, Europe

Re: Back to the USSR

How well did that work out for the Soviet block? I know if I had to go back then and choose one model to go with it would be an easy decision.

Spend your paper £5 notes NOW: No longer legal tender after today

Banks will take fivers for a while

Asked in the local Barclays yesterday and was told they'll take them for "ages". Apparently they'll still do so for £1 notes!

Anti-TV Licensing petition gets May date for Parliament debate

Re: Good going cobber - Pollution reasons

>So this means at least 50mph as many cars are most economical around 56mph.

Actually cars are almost always most economical below 40mph, and some considerably less than that.

Basic income after automation? That’s not how capitalism works

Re: Errrm

Everything that needs to be done will be (by the machines) so you won't need a job as, well, everything will be done for you.

Re: Errrm

They weren't. US wages have increased broadly in line with productivity.

Yahoo! halts! email! forwarding! to! outside! email! addresses!

Re: Only push, not pull?

Hmm. Recently when I've logged in to Yahoo! mail it's suggested turning off access via "less secure methods" than it's own apps, I wonder if said method is POP3 access. I'll check later.

'Facebook and eBay need to be subject to greater scrutiny' - Margaret Hodge

Re: Ha

Part of me thinks someone should point out to her that if the companies are following the law and she doesn't like the outcome then perhaps her time would be very much better spent trying to change the law (seeing as she's a politician, so that's her responsibility) rather than writing books saying how unfair it all is. Then a much larger part of me thinks that her doing anything other than modifying tax legislation is a very good idea indeed.

FT journo roasts channel leaders for spouting bullshit

Re: Obfuscation is as obfuscation does

Indeed. I searched a few online dictionaries just to be sure. Of course in the room that wasn't available to them, so her strategy worked, but if she did that to me I'd be ready to call her on anything she came up with any subsequent times we met. If you're going to be pedantic it helps to be right.

Narcissist Heidi Powell wants her dot-com and she wants it now, now, NOW!

Has anyone checked

if itaughtheidipowellhowtogivehead.com is registered?

Robot cars probably won't happen, sniffs US transport chief

Re: I'm not sure I understand

I'd definitely want a car programmed with self-preservation. However I'd want everyone else's car to be programmed to minimise the number of lives lost. It's possible a compromise may have to be made.

FBI electronics nerd confesses: I fed spy tech blueprints to China

Re: I'm surprised the structure of the FBI is secret.

I think it was a bluff, make it secret so the Chinese think it's important. Then back at HQ...

"Why on earth are *they* reporting to *him*?"

"What does this department do? And this one?"

"What's the meaning for having 4 separate teams doing almost entirely the same thing?"

"This must be hugely important, let's get our best brains working out what the cunning Americans are doing with something that appears so completely illogical."

Or possibly

"But I thought Dilbert was fictional."

It's time for a discussion about malvertising

I don't block ads

I get it, there have to be ads to pay for the content, unless I have a subscription. Personally I don't even mind tracking, I'd rather have ads that are tailored to things I might want rather than being completely inappropriate. However I do block scripts, they aren't needed to show me an ad and it's far too dangerous.

Top IT bod Sally Howes leaves the UK's National Audit Office

Re: On track to fail

<private_frazer>We're all doomed!</private_frazer>

MPs tell BT: Lay more fibre or face split with Openreach

Re: Nationalization not needed.

Likewise I believe BT should be put under a legal obligation to provide a gigabit connection to my house, without charging me any more. I don't believe that the cost, spread across the country, would be huge.

Are Indians too stupid to be trusted with free Internet?

Re: $1 per day

Smartphones. Free Basics is mobile data. I'm guessing probably budget Androids rather than iPhone 6Ss...

Brit boffins brew nanotech self-cleaning glass

Re: Question

I think it's cr*p phrasing but does actually make sense. On a sunny day heat mainly enters windows via radiation, but leaves by conduction and convection. We get round the heat loss by double-glazing etc., but the amount of heat entering is largely fixed. With this glass they're saying that when it's cold it's transparent to IR, hence all the available radiation passes through, however when it's warm it's reflective so the heat remains outside. "escaping" is an unfortunate word to use.

Facebook is no charity, and the ‘free’ in Free Basics comes at a price

Half right

Yep, Zuck's being completely disingenuous claiming this is altruism, FB ain't a charity and this is a business strategy. That said, the author isn't exactly against a bit of spin either: "limited only to Facebook, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, and a few other carefully selected sites and services" - commentards should check out what those "few" are before making up their minds whether or not it's a bad thing to offer free access to these sites to them. And follow the link to see how high Indian internet penetration levels and growth rates are.

Oh, Zuck off: Facebook under attack for its attacks on net neutrality

Re: Free Basics

Sigh. OK, if that term isn't to everyone's liking, how about 'limited internet is better than no internet'? So people who are too poor to be able to afford an internet connection can access sites like Malaria No More, Social Blood and Maya (and yes, unfortunately Facebook).

Re: Free Basics

Well, because they have to meet certain criteria, mainly about limiting the amount of data being used because FB is paying for it. They're aiming this at people who can't afford full internet access, if someone can come up with a way of providing everyone in India with that it would be way better, but until then it's a choice between a walled garden and no garden at all. I know which of those I'd go for.

Windows Phone won't ever succeed, says IDC

Well, that's closer than TFA but still inaccurate. 3.54 per minute, or one every 17 seconds or so.

WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

Kirsty's first attempt to implement ROT-13 was woefully misguided

Going under the knife? Avoid Fridays. Trust us, we asked a doctor

Re: No surprise

My young daughter was sick on (bank holiday) Monday and spent most of it in Southampton General and I still think the NHS is great. Perfect, no, but great, yes.

Netbooks: notebook evolved - or stunted throwback?

Me too!

Like many other commenters here, I love my Acer Aspire 1. It's very portable, boots up quickly and has just about a big enough screen for browsing. Plus I can have a look at my camera pics at a decent size.

Of course I was one of the lucky ones - I got the 1GB RAM, 16GB SSD, 3G one for 165 quid. If I was offered a slightly larger one with a spinning HD I didn't want or need, no 3G and Windows cludging it up, for getting on for twice as much cash (i.e. what seems to be available now), well, no thank you very much.

Humax HDR-Fox T2 Freeview HD DVR

YMMV

You must have been unlucky, my 9200 is the best gadget I've ever bought. It's not that it's never given us a problem, but they've mostly either been issues that have been fixed or have been when I haven't followed the instructions (reverting to default settings after a patch etc.). It's more than made up for those by being simple to use and doing what it says on the tin. Or in fact more, with the improvements to the functionality that were rolled out later. Now if the powers that be could only get on with turning off the analogue signal to the south-east and boost up the digital power I'll be very happy.

HP to sell low-cost ink

Ungumming Epson heads

You can often rescue Epson heads - remove the cartridges and drip a drop or two of window-cleaning fluid on to the bit where the ink gets taken from the cartridges. Do a clean and, with any luck, voila.

I've rescued my Epson like this a few times (the printer doesn't get used that often and I use cheap ink). Your mileage may vary.