Posts by bluesxman

Former UK Labour deputy leader wants to know how the NHS's contact-tracing app will ensure user privacy

By not releasing it, I'd imagine

Can't hack what isn't there.

2,500 years ago, these folks weren't cremated – but their funeral-goers were absolutely baked: Earliest evidence of pot smoking discovered

Re: It's been awhile (thankfully!) ...

Leaf it alone, it's just not worth hit.

Microsoft emits free remote-desktop security patches for WinXP to Server 2008 to avoid another WannaCry

Re: XP What? Where?

It now fails to boot to Windows (not even safe mode!)

So what I'm getting from this is that it can now be considered secure. So problem solved then, right?

Not another pro-Brexit demo... though easy to confuse: Each Union Jack marks a pile of poo

I am not a bin man (nor an advocate for same) but if it's 5 yards off the curb, it sounds an awful lot like you forgot to put it out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Trainer regrets giving straight answer to staffer's odd question

Clumsy Executive Officer

A former CEO at #{ex_employer.last} was actually that likely to (legitimately) break his Blackberry in some manner (down the toilet, usually) – and had such tendency to kick up an almighty shitstorm about how imperative it was that it be replaced immediately so he could send his 4am missives – that they had a policy of keeping a stock of them fully charged and preconfigured with his account on stand by.

It liiives! Sorta. Gentle azure glow of Windows XP clocked in Tesco's self-checkouts, no less

Re: Local Optician

Various endpoint protection programs can lock down the USB ports -- there's a (slim) chance they're using something like that. Though that probably wouldn't save them from USB Kill or similar. But I suspect that deploying that would quite likely cause you to be delayed from reaching your flight, or anywhere else for that matter.

Beyond code PEBCAK lies KMACYOYO, PENCIL and PAFO

Pedantic

"Problem Exists Between Screen And Fat Fingers!" -- I'm giving this a score of 2/10 - must try harder.

There is generally nothing between a touch screen and the fingers, that's kinda the point of a touch screen, yo.

Google faces $10k-a-day fines if it defies court order to hand over folks' private overseas email

Re: It's been awhile (thankfully!) ...

Chicken?

Commodore 64 makes a half-sized comeback

There's no hint of crowdfunding, so hopefully the hiccups Vega+ buyers experienced won't be an issue.

Did they actually ship them (Vega+) yet? I've not found a recent article on them to confirm one way or the other.

User demanded PC be moved to move to a sunny desk – because it needed Windows

Re: Oh dear

'Just watch the film "Idiocracy" - and think of Trump's America.'

Just think of Trump's America and there's no reason to watch the film "Idiocracy"*

_{* This is not intended as a slight on the film, which I very much enjoyed.}

Burglary, robbery, kidnapping and a shoot-out over… a domain name?!

Re: Wow. Just wow.

It's not April 1st in the US, is it?

Feels like every day in the US has been 1st April since mid January...

GitHub acknowledges autocrats with 'code owner' feature

Re: Maintenance?

a list like this is going to need maintenance and who's going to do that?

The owner of CODEOWNERS, obviously.

Fancy fixing your own mobile devices? Just take the display off carefu...CRUNCH !£$%!

"Surface [...] is intended to be serviced by professionals"

Exactly how professional does one need to be to repair the certified unrepairable?

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Laptop+Teardown/92915

'Bio-hacker' embeds public transport ticket under his skin

Surprised Captain Cyborg hasn't been dug up for comment.

'My PC needs to lose weight' says user with FAT filesystem

Re: Good luck explaining the latest Microsoft acronyms...

There's such a thing as trying too hard.

Re: It's been awhile (thankfully!) ...

In fairness, I suspect the reporter was just rusty on the details; File Manager in Win3x seems to behave broadly in the manner described (notwithstanding the incorrectly oriented slash in the story -- tsk tsk).

http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/system/managers/filemanager/winnt31.png

Although it's not abundantly clear from the screenshot if it's telling you the filesystem format, or the admin simply labelled the drive "FAT" -- and my first hand memory of such things is far too hazy now.

Remember those stupid hoverboards? 500,000+ recalled in the US after they started exploding

Re: Swagway

Also "Swegway" is a thing. Difficult to decide who's riffing off whom.

Here's how to SMS spam Liberal voters and get away with it

Re: An anon sms is stupid.

Mmmm ... irony.

Embattled 123-reg flings six months' free hosting at angry customers

Re: Does MarcoMasala work at 123-reg?

I assumed it was one and the same when I saw the first reports of this 123 debacle. Curiously prescient. Though Marco came across somewhere between "trollish" and "massively incompetent".

How TV ads silently ping commands to phones: Sneaky SilverPush code reverse-engineered

Re: Pirates

There's nothing like a little entrapment :-)

Uber is killing off iconic black cabs, warns Zac Goldsmith

Two Different Issues

On one hand Uber may be dodging tax and screwing their drivers.

On the other hand, to paraphrase Darwin, evolve or die (can't guarantee you won't do one then the other though).

Can't say I'm thrilled with the former, the latter sits fine with me.

Apple recalling iPhone 6 Pluses to correct their iSight

Re: You're photographing it wrong

It wasn't a good joke; but a joke, I believe, it was.

Reference

In that vein: you're reading it wrong.

Crafty fingering could let Apple Watch thieves raid your bank account

Re: I think...

The last 4 characters of that YouTube link (the link itself) triggered my (childish) snirking reflex.

SanDisk launches 200GB microSD card

Re: MicroSD card slot is just underneath the battery actually

Not on the S6 and S6 edge. Where have you been?

Off somewhere appreciating sarcasm, I'd imagine.

Ex-Microsoft Bug Bounty dev forced to decrypt laptop for Paris airport official

Meh

If my work laptop is anything to go by, the whole disk encryption software login interface would look entirely unfamiliar (and possibly even a bit suspicious, in a Fisher Price sort of way) to large swathes of the public. I'm assuming the Security Officer was simply looking for something Windows-ish that she could identify with to assure her this wasn't some sort of mock up.

Really... an iKeyfob? Apple continues war on fanbois' pockets

Re: Nothing new: Key helps locate a car

So the thief just puts the stolen watch on their own wrist, assuming they have a pulse.

Vanished blog posts? Enterprise gaps? Welcome to Windows 10

Re: Docking

Press WinKey and Left/Right cursor to move a Window about from half to half. I don't know of a mouse equivalent.

Yes. App that lets you say 'Yo' raises 1 MEEELLION DOLLARS

Re: YO

Oy

Japanese schoolkids arrested in £2.4 MEEELLION phone fraud bust

RE: "I know this might be a little inappropriate....."

You might as well have gone the whole hog and wrapped your comment with:

"I'm not racist, but..."

and:

"just sayin'"

NZ bloke's drunken poker bet ends in 99-letter name

Re: Worra laff

from waters breaking to birth.

Until I got to that part, I was assuming it was a boast, of sorts, highlighting the other end of the pregnancy.

Modular smartphones floated by Dutch designer chap

Not only that, but also...

... software support.

There's enough fragmentation due to varying hardware platforms in the Android arena (for example) at the moment. Seems to me that all the necessary virtualisation/abstraction layers it would require for everything to play nicely together (or even at all) and relying on myriad component vendors to maintain a decent level of support would make for a phone which would perform somewhere between "like shit" and "not at all".

On many fronts, implementation would be a total bitch - but I do love the idea.

Web showered in golden iPhone 5S vid glory - but is it all a DISTRACTION?

Re: Is Glass too new to copy?

> I like the pun of calling it iWear.

iSight™

When your squash partner 'endorses' your coding skills on LinkedIn...

+1

In my experience the endorsements are even more trivial than described.

If you click through an endorsement notification (or click the "Endorse Connections" link from your profile page) it pops up a selection of contacts with a single skill already selected for you. All you have to do is hit the yellow button to spam them all with some profile cruft. You don't even have to read (let alone think about) who you're endorsing or what you're endorsing them with.

It utter shite.

Even a CHILD can make a Trojan to pillage Windows Phone 8

"it's unclear whether [it] simply tricks users into doing something daft"

Arguably that mission was already accomplished by the salesperson... when they convinced the punter to buy the WinMoPho in the first place.

Boom boom!

Yes, yes I'm leaving...

Jam today: Raspberry Pi Ram doubled

Re: Hmmm

Read your own post much?

"TBH for £22 you can't really complain ..."

Anecdotal evidence indicates that other suppliers are providing the goods in a timely fashion, while RS continues to flounder.

For £22 you are entitled to complain about shoddy service.

Hell, for £1 you are entitled to complain.

Re: Hmmm

The product is cheap therefore you don't deserve good service from the reseller? Now that's some good logic!

Will you soon be fingering your seven-incher?

Quite happy...

... with my 7 inch Ainol -- with which I can assure you that 5 fingers is more than enough.

Happy birthday, Compact Disc

Re: time flies ...

> Just tested that, doesn't work mate, it just plays from the start again, which would be expected I'd day.

> Maybe you mean when you press pause? Coz that definitely works.

I remember that sequence and the Sony rep definitely removed the disc from the player. I presume the player was either specially modified for the purpose of the demonstration or the music playback was simply faked for the TV audience -- it's certainly not a feature I could see having any value in a production device...

The Register iPhone and Android apps: Maintenance update

Re: Not the classy way to do it....

If you'd ever used The Register app* before you'd know that that's precisely what happened. Only without the apology (unless you count this article).

;-)

* On Android, can't speak for t'other

Curiosity clears things up

You have 14 minutes to comply!

Everything Everywhere to be Nothing Nowhere in rebrand

Perhaps a portmanteau?

T-Mange

Orabile

Amazon UK to offer collection service at corner shops

Re: My local CollectPlus

Lucky you. Clearly the best solution for you is to not use this service. That's not exactly a hardship, is it?

Three extends data use with Sim-only tariff tweak

Re: Limitations?

As per other responses, my experience with Three is that they do not detect my infrequent tethering activities via wifi hotspot (or if they do, they've never done anything about it).

Not that I do much other than a bit of web browsing and, very occasionally, some VPN from my work laptop.

However, I have an unbranded phone -- Three branded phones may have a software restriction.

Touchscreens to get finger friendly

RE: And gaming..

From the video the raised areas look like fixed locations, presumably only switchable between portrait and landscape if your keyboard layouts overlap appropriately.

As such, I wouldn't get your hopes up about smoothly sliding a bump around the screen just yet.

HMRC Tax Calc

A bit shit

(Based on the Android version)

* Doesn't show your monthly income (yes I can use a calculator but how hard is for the app to x/12 the result?)

* Doesn't allow you to specify your tax code (so it gives me a higher gross income than is reality)

I'll stick with ListenToTaxman thanks.

Passwords are for AES-holes

Re: I use KeePass

Thankfully I'm not in such a locked down environment so can't speak from experience, but I use the portable version of KeePass and would assume (please correct if wrong) that this would work in such a "you can't install stuff" organisation. Unless of course the policies are granular enough to only allow certain EXEs to be run.

Ten... Qwerty mobiles

Re: Never

Why stop there?

You shouldn't use share a computer keyboard or mouse.

Don't take the lift, those buttons will be filthy. But be careful of the hand rail as you take the stairs.

Don't flush the toilet, you know where those hands have been. You can't be sure the last person washed their hands properly before turning off that tap either. Watch out for that door handle on your way out too! In fact, any door handle.

In fact just put on your paper suit and stay out of public places altogether, Mr Hughes.

HTC peeves punters with One X woes

Re: yep, indeed

Hmmm I might have encountered that, though only seems to affect photos for me (not much else on my SD card to be fair) and it seemed to be more about number of files in a directory. Once I'd breached a certain amount new ones wouldn't appear in the gallery without a rescan (and then vanished again later). I worked around the issue by moving my old pics into "/sdcard/old_pics".

From the Department of WTF: New USB tampon flash drive

Pricing

$29.90 ... for 2GB, presumably?

At those prices they can stick 'em up their arse instead.

I'm going...