Posts by Evil Auditor

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

Re: sleepwalking?

Good I work from home! Otherwise colleagues might have wondered why I had this hysteric fit of laughter.

_{Pity I can't up-vote you more than once}

India makes contact-tracing app compulsory in viral hot zones despite most local phones not being smart

Re: so what *is* the solution?

Thank you for pointing out its historic context. This does, however, not invalidate nowadays usual meaning. Which in my understanding is not even its opposite if you consider the quote in regard to a "ruling party", whether it's the Penns or the state.

Re: Fool proof!

Foolproof: proof to be a fool.

Watch now the three UFO videos uncovered by Blink-182 star – and today officially released by the Pentagon

Well, I have an actual background of quite an impressive cityscape. That doesn't make me an architect nor an urban planner though.

And this is the moment when I realise that the comments by amanfromMars are, in fact, rather meaningful and sensible.

Microsoft decrees that all high-school IT teachers were wrong: Double spaces now flagged as typos in Word

Re: Not enough

Exactly. And once every day you shall step outside your front door and applaud the spell checker.

SAP decides one head is better than two in a crisis, parts ways with co-CEO Jennifer Morgan

Re: It is simpler than that

That was my first thought as well. ...requires companies to take swift, determined action which is best supported by a male CEO. Here, fixed that for you, SAP.

As much as I disagree with this, time and again I encounter this exact same bias against women/for men.

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

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

I'd say: let them have their freedom and liberty!

Don't get me wrong, I think the limitations of some of our fundamental rights is not something to be taken lightly and should indeed be critically questioned. After all, there has to be some balancing of conflicting goals and e.g., a total shutdown with the whole population forcefully quarantined without exception isn't, in my opinion, an acceptable answer either (i.e. under current circumstances).

Coming back to our "libertarians". Let them rant, let them demonstrate, let them meet! Not online, but rather in real life, in person. Let them spread viruses amongst themselves. And let evolution do the rest.

I do have some doubts that this actually works, but one can at least hope... Or as an American friend of mine recently said: then there will be less Trump-voters.

Lockdown endgame? There won't be one until the West figures out its approach to contact-tracing apps

Re auto-correct, lucky you! Mine is trimmed to change "a" into "ae" for the platform ending with ...book.

@KCIN

Would you mind to provide reliable sources for your statement?

Looking for a tech job? Have a browse – there are plenty of roles in our biggest listing yet

Kudos to El Reg for providing the job listing. And for illustrating the listing with female people - it may not be representative but I know that I'm not the only one struggling to create a more diverse team with a great lack of applications from women for tech-related jobs.

This hurts a ton-80: British darts champ knocked out of home tourney by lousy internet connection

Re: here's something to do :

That may or may not be the case. But if so, Gordon the Gopher will never be cold because the broom cupboard surely is the place where the servers live. (And if it gets too hot in there the Dyson is used to suck the hot air out.)

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

Still better to name something "new" which at least is relative. When I joined the company in 2007 we had an ongoing (far from finished and later to be aborted) project for the replacement of the core system called Sys2005 for its intended go-live date in that year.

Antarctic science put on ice by coronavirus – next summer's expeditions restricted to essentials and robots

Re: TP

It's a trap. Don't fall for it. It's the antipodean and modern version of naming Greenland.

Re: Antarctic stations have “tonnes” of toilet paper

There were the great prophets imagining that our post-apocalyptic struggle will be about fuel, medication or food. Little did they know that it will enter the electronic* history books as the Bog Roll War.

_{*obviously electronic since all paper will be traded as bottom wipes.}

From Amanda Holden to petrol-filled water guns: It has been a weird week for 5G

Re: conspiracy

All these conspiracy posts are part of a government plot to track down and identify idiots.

What an encouraging thought! But do you seriously trust the government to draft and execute such an elaborate plot?

Boeing 787s must be turned off and on every 51 days to prevent 'misleading data' being shown to pilots

Re: Millisecond roll-over?

"...we don't really understand binary and stuff. So, at 49.7 days it may or may not be, but at 51 days it surely is fscked and needs a reboot."

How many days of carefree wiping do you have left before life starts to look genuinely apocalyptic? Let's find out

Covidiots: they may lose their jobs in the current crisis. But surely they lay ground for opening a toilet paper dealership.

I keep my reserves as low as ever. Some years ago I had a discussion with a mild form of prepper. He truly couldn't understand why I didn't have a stockpile of tinned food and other essential supplies. Getting bored of the discussion I simply replied: I don't need to. I know where you live.

Marriott Hotels hacked AGAIN: Two compromised employee logins abused to siphon off 5.2m guests' personal info

Re: Scratch Marriott off the list

there are some chains I want to avoid

Yes, all of them. That is, at least the large, international chains. I did a lot of travelling in the past, both for business and leisure, and have had much better experiences staying off those chains. Of course, there are the odd ones like one which is marketing itself as business hotel and you won't even find a table to work on in any room.

What's the difference between Windows 7 and a bin lorry? One is full of garbage, and the other… oh dear

This is a perfectly appropriate display on a bin lorry.

Lost in translation and adrift in cloud storage

Re: Dictionary?

Dutch, German - how would I know?! Btw, Bernd was just an example and I guess there are some typically Dutch names that start with Be*.

Re: The problem is not beheerder

In the DIY business...

Where is my folding rule? Oh sod it! I'll just cut and make it fit somehow. [cutting ongoing] Darn! It's too short. But nothing that can't be fixed with some glue.

Re: Dictionary?

I fully agree. The problem was that this looked pretty much like a user name of, e.g. a person called Bernd Heerder.

Re: google translate anyone?

who in their right mind...

Good question. In my case, cf. post above, it was at a Belgian company. Can't remember if the software where I found it had its origin in Belgium or the Netherlands.

beheerder

Came across such an account some years ago. At that time, for all I knew, this looked just like any another user name following more or less their naming convention. I wondered though (in fact, I got quite shirty), why a person who didn't even belong to the IT department had administrative permissions on the system.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, health secretary Matt Hancock both test positive for COVID-19 coronavirus

Re: The emergency regulations...

What a compellingappalling thought.

Announcing the official Reg-approved measure of social distancing: The Osman

The Osman

That might help in situations with friendly acquaintances even though before I didn't know who Osman is.

And how do I keep strangers away? A bit of fake coughing works wonders and keeps them much further away then an Osman or two.

First impressions count when the world is taken by surprise by an exciting new (macro) virus

Re: Warnings ignored?

many of whom are in IT

Darn, I always wondered why El Reg has all this IT stuff once I leave Bootnotes...

Re: Warnings ignored?

I believe in this story it was the IT who ignored the warning.

To summarise (with and without recent events in mind), we all ignore warnings. And we know how to deal with them: Four Stages Strategy

Tech won't save you from lockdown disaster: How to manage family and free time while working from home

Re: re: maximum distance of 200m

Just stay at home.

And hope you're not heading where Italy is. Although, it might already be too late for the UK.

Lucky you if you have a balcony to run on. Where I come from, with all working from home it is so dense and hot in here that the only place where I could reasonably run is inside the fridge.

Captain Caveman rides to the rescue, solves a prickly PowerPoint problem with a magical solution

Re: A4 vs letter

Yes, should. Guess what my PDF printer does.

Hong Kong makes wearable trackers mandatory for new arrivals, checks in with ‘surprise calls’ too

Well, last time I was visiting HK I got one for free, including unlimited data and national calls.

Come to Malmö for St Peter's. Stay for the Bork

...but didn't that happen in Norway?

Borklays soz for the ailing ATMs but won't say if fix involved a Microsoft invoice

And does abusing something (or someone) over and over again make it okay?

Just wondering how much of an abuse "PIN code" is.

Tinfoil hat brigade switches brand allegiance to bog paper

Re: Corona hits 2020 - for german speakers

I knew it! One day it would pay off having learnt German: this is today.

Not exactly the kind of housekeeping you want when it means the hotel's server uptime is scrubbed clean

Only the IT industry? I believe as mankind we are susceptible to such notification.

Want to own a bit of Concorde? Got £750k burning a hole in your pocket? We have just the thing

Re: Need / Want

Just checked the cash in my pocket and, equally unfortunately and unsurprisingly, it wouldn't buy that engine. It would hardly pay for the transport of that beast. But now I do know why I have a garage that is slightly oversized for cars: the Olympus easily fits in there and leaves more than enough space to work on it.

All the IT ladies (all the IT ladies), all the IT ladies (all the IT ladies), now put your hands up! Oh, still not many here

PwC could be advised to take some of its own advice

Indeed. But, as the proverb goes: do as I say, not as I do.

Disk stuck in the drive? Don't dilly-Dali – get IT on the case!

Re: In my case

If you baked them hot enough and long enough, they would be perfectly fine thereafter. Mind, they might turn into another Daliesque figure. Or catch fire.

After 16 years of hype, graphene finally delivers on its promise – with a cosmetic face mask

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

Kids put everything in their mouths! And what is the long-term effect: they die. All of them, without exception.

jake, I think you uncovered the key for eternal life. If it was possible to prevent kids from putting stuff in their mouths.

If you're wondering how Brit cops' live suspect-hunting facial-recog is going, it's cruising at 88% false positives

Re: Time to put on those Face Masks

That is, hiding significant parts of the face and getting fined for disorderly behaviour. Result: 100% success rate (among those facial mask wearers).

...two dismissed as obvious errors.

One of them was a letter box and the other the litter bin.

Bloodhound gang handles the pan again to get back to Hakskeenpan

The benefit of this is, I guess, getting the highest speed. I mean, others collect stamps or participate in Vendée Globe and Bloodhound attempts the land speed record. Because they can. No further explanation required.

Fund raising: claim you attempt to prove the Earth is flat by running over a flat track fast.

US Homeland Security mistakenly seizes British ad agency's website in prostitution probe gone wrong

...will not strike twice.

It may have been a mistake. But now they are known. Known for causing inconvenience, trouble, whatever. And surely on some watchlist.

Next time lightning strikes, it will be no mistake.

London's top cop dismisses 'highly inaccurate or ill informed' facial-recognition critics, possibly ironically

Borderline? They blocked the tube during rush hour. Prosecute 'em. Lock 'em up. All of them!

Dick, what a twat.