Posts by Test Man

Elon Musk's X mashed by Australian court for evading child protection reporting

X is dumb for trying that one. It's the same company legally, something that they can't wave away with a name change or the act of another entity buying the company.

Windows 11 user hurt by the KB5043145 update? Microsoft offers a way out

Re: Unfortunately...

Finally, someone with a sensible comment.

Desktop hypervisors are like buses: None for ages, then four at once

Re: Hyper-V Type1

There is a need if you want to use an older version of Windows such as 7 or older. IIRC HyperV won't let you install an older version of Windows.

Woman uses AirTags to nab alleged parcel-pinching scum

Re: Interesting timing

They go live on different dates for different people, there isn't a set launch date.

For instance, mine went live last week.

Deadbeat dad faked his own death by hacking government databases

Re: Yeahbut

Ah, Wargames!

:D

School gets an F for using facial recognition on kids in canteen

The question here should always be: "what actual issue are you trying to fix here with this new system?". If there isn't any substantial reasons, then it should be killed there and then.

In respect to this, we can go back and forth over how good this system is, or the risks (of hacks), but at the end of the day, if there isn't any real reason for implementing it, then it's pointless.

I didn't touch a thing – just some cables and a monitor – and my computer broke

Re: IT Crowd

Philips HQ in Croydon? That massive building in West Croydon going towards Mayday Hospital? Long gone IIRC - Philips I mean, the building is still there but it's now a massive block of flats.

Giving Windows total recall of everything a user does is a privacy minefield

Taking aside the fact that BitLocker will only come into play on Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise devices – everyone else must make do with "data encryption"

It's all BitLocker, even on Home. The only difference is that on Home it's "feature-limited" which they name something else, while the full-featured-with-lots-of-options feature on other editions is called BitLocker.

Functionally speaking, it's the same encryption and therefore absolutely no difference in this context.

BT delays deadline for digital landline switch off date

And that's not to mention that most people have cordless phones... which don't work in a power cut anyway, PSTN or no PSTN.

Specifically, this only affects people with corded phones or other equipment that gets its power from the phone line.

Apple says if you want to ship your own iOS browser engine in EU, you need to be there

Re: matter of time

It's trivial for an organisation of Apple's size. Right now they have to go through a ton of very different regulations that apply to specific regions and countries just to sell the "same" device (which technically speaking aren't actually exactly the same due to said differing regulations). Having to maintain separate code bases is nothing.

Microsoft really does not want Windows 11 running on ancient PCs

Re: Alternative

"forcing the ribbon interface"

what, 17 years ago?

In-app browsers are still a privacy, security, and choice problem

For me the absolute reason why I hate these in-app browsers is because they do not contribute to my History list, so I don't know whether I visited particular sites, nor do they allow me to utilise my existing autofill texts.

I really hate Facebook, Instagram and Threads' in-app browsers, and being forced to use them. There is only one reason they are utilising it - in order to more easily see what people are clicking on.

Microsoft sends OneDrive URL upload feature to the cloud graveyard

Re: This .ru site has a solution

.ru site

"they promise"

No thanks.

Meta says risk of account theft after phone number recycling isn't its problem to solve

This is a Meta issue whether they like it or not. It's been well known right from when mobiles started to become popular in the 80s and 90s that numbers get recycled in much the same way that landlines do, yet companies like Meta use them for identification without coming up with a solution for number recycling. It is they who need to find a solution, not telecoms companies.

At last: The BBC Micro you always wanted, in Mastodon form

Re: I still have the real thing

I had a BBC Master 128. I don't know anyone who had the variations (512, Scientific, Compact).

New cars bought in the UK must be zero emission by 2035 – it's the law

Re: Think of the Grid!

Yes of course, e.g. in my area there's 40MPH signs for roads. Basically you don't sign roads "30MPH" if they are the National Speed Limit anyway.

Also the comment re "painting over 20MPH signs" - doesn't sound illogical at all.

Re: Think of the Grid!

Yep, all of this.

I read *UNSIGNED* as "National Speed Limit", because different class of vehicles have different limits, although *currently* it's 30MPH across all classes for vehicles in built-up areas (apart from Wales, where it's 20MPH).

See here - https://www.gov.uk/speed-limits

Epic decision sees jury find Google's Play store is illegal monopoly

Re: confused

I think it's not because there are other app stores, it's that Google have selectively allowed these app stores by way of payment, which means unless you are a massive company like Samsung you are not going to be able to launch an app store on Android, or launch your app on another app store without contravening Google's Android agreements.

Microsoft to kill off third-party printer drivers in Windows

Re: Confused

Not a ban, as said within artlce it just means they won't be distributed via Windows Update

China reportedly bans iPhones from more government offices

Why iPhones and not all phones?

Microsoft still prohibits Google or Alibaba from running O365 Windows Apps

Nope. Nothing stopping you from using an alternative suite.

It's clearly a business decision to get you to use a setup Microsoft likes. Whether as a business you need to, is completely up to the business.

Amazing you haven't heard of FAST or the numerous similar licensing organisations who will readily take your business to court for non-compliance.

Netflix flinging out DVDs like frisbees as night comes for legacy business

Re: bizarre state of affairs

Ha yeah, I remember when DVDs started to become a thing, and the likes of Warner Bros would put out bare minimum on their DVDs in order to fill the shelves. I still have Passenger 57 - a DVD with just the movie (at "acceptable" quality), and a static menu, nothing else.

Cruise self-driving taxi gets wheels stuck in wet cement

Re: Well...

Yeah I would have presumed that the majority of the operations of the self-driving features would be done on-board, and therefore any bandwidth issues would merely stop real-time reporting back to the mothership, or the ability to cope with more advanced driving (and still leave it with the capability to drive around at least).

Hacking a Foosball table scored an own goal for naughty engineers

Re: Blank coins

Has anyone ever tried to freeze water into coin shape and use them? Would be the perfect "crime", the evidence left would be a few wet patches.

This sounds really REALLY familiar... as in tapping the switch in the headrest at a quick enough rate so that the phone didn't hang up the line but registered a "pulse"... which sometimes would get round the need to put a coin in first.

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Imagine going to France and thinking that a QUERTY keyboard was sufficient for the French.

LOL

Shocks from a hairy jumper crashed a PC, but the boss wouldn't believe it

Same here! Well, I was at uni where it was full of Sun workstations.... with that mat.

PC component scavenging queue jumper pulled into line with a screensaver

"This was in the days when Windows 2000 was our OS of choice because XP looked a bit too colorful,"

Did they forget that Windows XP had a "Classic" theme option?

Microsoft debuts Windows 11 2022 Update – now with features added monthly

Re: The best update?

LOL "SP5" for Windows 98SE

No, Apple, you may not sell iPhones without chargers

Re: The rest

My last one didn't - Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Re: The rest

There's these things called shops, and they sell multiple things, one of which are chargers.

Was solved decades ago. So you don't have a problem in that regard.

Former Microsoft UX boss doesn't like the Windows 11 Start menu either

Re: Windows 11 early adopter…

>I just wish that Office kept a standard file save dialog rather than their cluttered complicated cloud-first design, but that could just be the muscle memory talking.

It's still in there, but buried. IIRC you may be able to set it as default again.

Hive to pull the plug on smart home gadgets by 2025

Re: Thanks for the money but your stuffed.

Nah, 3 years is nothing for these sort of tech. They are not mobiles, no one replaces doorbells or cameras every 3 years, they should last 10+ years.

Legacy IT to blame for UK's inflexible benefits system

Re: My BS-o-meter just shot off the scale

"The DWP staff would sometimes ask me to fix multiple problems, and I'd decline. "The first one is free, the second one is £50 cash in hand - and don't tell the Dole". One time one of the managers agreed to that even though I'd just been joking. Paid me out of their pocket. Took an afternoon but worth it for the story."

This is the most amazing set of sentences out of an amazing story!

British motorists will be allowed to watch TV in self-driving vehicles

Re: Step #1, define your terms

As always, the devil is in the detail.

Distractions will be allowed only when the car is in auto. The moment it's not in auto (even when notifying that it has to come out of auto - please hold onto the steering wheel) the distraction will be legally mandated to be removed off the screen.

The insurer will only be liable if the car is in auto. If it's in any other state, it's the person who is driving that is at fault.

Help, my IT team has no admin access to their own systems

This article is briiliant! :D

What I want to know is did the bloke state he "fixed" it as soon as he did so, or wait a few hours? Was he even getting paid an hourly rate?

Tesla driver charged with vehicular manslaughter after deadly Autopilot crash

Re: There are no red lights on the freeway?

"The red light was unexpected? I'm thinking the Tesla wasn't supposed to have exited the freeway to begin with? "

If that was the case, in most countries the exit ramp is a long road and therefore the driver had ample time to have seen it and taken control.

Fugitive mafioso evaded cops for two decades until he was spotted on Google Street View

Probably not - blurring a face doesn't make someone totally unrecognisable when you can see the rest of his body. They probably looked and thought that his body strongly resembled him, then corroborated it with the pics from the Facebook page of the restaurant he was working for (that was in the same area).

In fact it pretty much says this in the article.

New year, new OS: OneDrive support axed for old versions of Windows from 1 Jan 2022

2025

a

Unvaccinated and working at Apple? Prepare for COVID-19 testing 'every time' you step in the office

They do, actually.

Depending on your role and the company, sometimes you have to have had certain vaccinations as a condition of taking the role.

Weeks after Red Bee Media's broadcast centre fell over, Channel 4 is still struggling with subtitles

"He told me that there's basically very little going out of the top of the tower these days. "

Yeah I heard that a lot of those satellite dishes don't work any more (maybe even all of them) but they can't be removed because the whole building is Grade-something listed.

User locked out of Microsoft account by MFA bug, complains of customer-hostile support

Re: Microsoft MFA on multiple devices

I'm going to presume that when you say "365 account" you mean "Microsoft work account with a 365 sub attached to it".

I ask because a personal account can also have a 365 sub.

Same here, and it's been like that for as long as I can remember. Google are simply uncontactable... tell a lie, I DID manage to contact them via e-mail regarding Family Link (miraculously). Everything else though.... nope.

With just over two weeks to go, Microsoft punts Windows 11 to Release Preview

Getting round software blocks to install patches isn't really a concern, and Microsoft clearly aren't going to be bothered by that. What is a concern is if someone contacted Microsoft with an issue that is on an unsupported system - Microsoft will simply not support it and therefore not help. Nor will they be particularly bothered if a future update or patch caused issues for those with unofficial "unblockers".

Also about binning a capable system - that's not even an issue for Microsoft, because apart from the fact that you'll be on Windows 10 anyway (which is still supported), upgrades is a miniscule revenue stream - it's been said many times before that OEM sales and volume sales drive the bulk of their revenue, so sooner or later you'll need a new PC and you'll get Windows 11 on it.

Magna Carta mayhem: Protesters lay siege to Edinburgh Castle, citing obscure Latin text that has never applied in Scotland

Re: Just tell 'em to

Bugger ye off*

as said by Rowan Atkinson in Bernard and the Genie - seriously go watch it, brilliant stuff especially Rowan's acting

How many Brits have deleted life-saving track and trace app from their phones? No idea, junior minister tells MPs

Precisely. At the start, when we didn't know anything about covid-19, self-isolation was a fair enough necessity. 1 and a half years later, it's too blunt a tool. The framework works well, but by now we should be using actual testing to make sure people who are infected stay home, not ask whole swathes of people who likely don't have it to stay home "just in case". In other words, a proper targeted approach is needed.

Russia spoofed AIS data to fake British warship's course days before Crimea guns showdown

Sounds like the plot of Tomorrow Never Dies.

'Biggest data grab' in NHS history stuffs GP records in a central store for 'research' – and the time to opt out is now

Re: Not that hard to fill in a form

Adobe Reader also lets you add boxes to type in.

It also lets you import a signature that is stored in your Adobe account (you create it by signing into Adobe Reader on a mobile and write - with a pen or your finger - your signature).

To have one floppy failure is unlucky. To have 20 implies evil magic or a very silly user

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

NO WAY!