* Posts by Colin Ritchie

223 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Apr 2009

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Pharma bro Martin Shkreli to miss 2024 Paris Olympics

Colin Ritchie

Take a bow.

I keep hearing a Rhianna song, every time this piece of news comes up,please make it stop!

Morrisons launches bizarre Yorkshire Pudding pizza thing

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Cutural exchange.

Take them to Glasgow and swap them for pizza crunch.

https://youtu.be/uyRYxvZWsJg

US shoppers abandon PC makers in hour of need

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Market Saturation

I do hope you don't let the cat overclock this build for you.

Living in space basically shoves a warp drive into your blood stream

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Prevention is better than cure.

CERN are on it: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-developing-a-magnetic-shield-to-protect-astronauts-from-cosmic-radiation

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Prevention is better than cure.

Like your working Big John and I appeciate the costs involved in such a huge component.

The Accommodation module could be 900m across and have thick shielding round its outer cylinder. If the cosmonauts lived in that module the majority of the time at 1g it would propably improve the situation. Ambitious to do I know, but we need to develop safe long term environments in space if we are going to progress.

Shielding doesn't just have to be metal, we can look into the ablative, reflecting and absorbing properties of other materials like plastics or minerals. We just need to spend some more money on looking. Magnetic shielding even? http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2008/nov/06/magnetic-shield-could-protect-spacecraft

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Prevention is better than cure.

If the ISS had a gravity generating spin and thicker shielding, I assume the bloods would come back more normal. Shame they cancelled this bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Module

Firefox doesn't need to be No 1 – and that's OK, 'cos it's falling off a cliff

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Losing market share?

Firefox had a netmarket share of 12.03% in July 2015 and has 12.02% share now, according to https://www.netmarketshare.com/. While its use dipped to 7.69% back in June 2016 it has since recovered, mainly at the expense of IE and Safari.

I know many XP and Windows 7 refusniks who use it now and refuse to have a bar of Chrome. Not being the most used browser is sometimes a good thing, you are not the biggest target either.

US laptops-on-planes ban now applies to just one airport, ends soon

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Guns

Rifle is a subset of the word gun Bob. A gun is a normally tubular weapon or other device designed to discharge projectiles or other material. Rifling is added to improve accuracy and range. Considering that the weapons found were in hand luggage, I would assume most of them were pistols (with rifling) anyway.

Statistically, the presence of so many guns in the USA makes them far more dangerous to US citizens than the terrorists the laptop ban was meant to stop. While I assume you believe your 2nd Amendment rights are inviolate; I would suggest trying to disarm toddlers and banning lawnmowers, if you want to save more American lives, because they are killing more of your citizens than international terrorists, but still a fraction of the numbers killed by retaining the good ol' 2nd Amendment.

http://dangerousintersection.org/2016/09/08/odds-of-getting-killed-by-armed-toddlers-terrorists-and-falling-out-of-bed/

Zero accidents, all of your data – what The Reg learnt at Bosch's autonomous car bash

Colin Ritchie

Re: Nut Bush City Limits.

Who is this we keemosabbi?

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/16/car-bike-or-motorcycle-depends-on-where-you-live/

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Nut Bush City Limits.

I ride a motorcycle. Good luck with making that an autonomous, data slurping, adrenaline free vehicle.

Honda, the makers of soulless machinery, are trying to: http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a32162/honda-just-invented-a-self-balancing-motorcycle-that-never-falls-over/

Robots will enable a sustainable grey economy

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Buses still are a thing.

The bus service in Kent is geared up to support all ages of traveller. Newer designs of bus lower themselves to the kerb when they stop to allow wheelchair users on, they are equipped with USB charging points for mobile devices and even have rudimentary wifi while in built up areas. My Mum is 73 years old and has thouroughly relished her free bus pass since it was first issued to her on her retirement. She has no need for a car or even a license, despite living in the sticks. Hourly buses work just fine and are a far cheaper, less wasteful use of resources than individual autonomus vehicles, no matter how cool they sound.

DUP site crashes after UK general election

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Maybe someone did this again?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12179367

Samsung Galaxy S8+: Seriously. What were they thinking?

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Pure hipster wankery

I only logged in to upvote your comment. Shame we can't plaster it across Samsung's site.

£800 for a phone? I'll stick to a Moto 4G for a fifth of the price and be happy to spend a similar amount, about 2 years later when the Android patches run out. How long will Samsung support the S8 with updates, I wonder?

Unpaid tech contractor: 'I have to support my family. I have no money for medicines'

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Has anyone asked this guy?

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/marcjonesatfinite

"He has most recently joined a new and disruptive payroll services company who are changing the way the industry thinks about payroll. "

Disruptive indeed.

What is this bullsh*t, Google? Nexus phones starved of security fixes after just three years

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Son Going to College

My Android device purchase plan assumes built in obsolescence after 2-3 years anyway, along with the battery fade. I bought a Moto G in 2013 (£120) and replaced it in 2016 with a Moto G4 (£160). Next replacement probably another Moto G in 2019 (at about £200 by then). This averages out at £53.33 per year for hardware (PAYG ofc, add a £10 per month goodie bag on Giff Gaff).

I have no idea how many iPhones someone would buy over a 9 year period or how much that would cost them.

Google treating Nexus as badly as any other Droid manufacturer does their own devices, seriously undermines their value.

Would you believe it? The Museum of Failure contains quite a few pieces of technology

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Bic for her

The 'Insufficient" review by Mr J Stevens is a masterpiece!

Samsung phones, Apple's iPhones are 'overpriced', says top Huawei exec

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Huawei seem a bit pricey too.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Motorola-Moto-G4-Plus,Huawei-P9/phones/10053%2C10012

The £200 Moto G4 plus compares very well with the £350 P9. The Moto G5 promises to compete well too, imho.

Rollout of smart meters continues at a snail's pace

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Blighty calls that Economy 7.

Here in the UK we have had cheaper offpeak electricity tariffs since 1978. Named Economy 7, it gives very cheap electric for 7 hours a night, ideal for heating water tanks and electric storage heaters. The "smart" meter has a radio teleswitch to tell the spinning dial which mechanical numbers to move as it spins. Take a good look at exactly how smart it appears to be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7

Use a dishwasher or washing machine with programmable delay and all your stuff gets done for cheap. It ain't broke, not fixing it.

Botched Microsoft update knocks Windows 8, 10 PCs offline – regardless of ISP

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Re:There is a Microsoft theme song in there.

https://youtu.be/fjXswmoZ2HQ

Blu Vivo 6: Top value trendsetter marred by Chino-English mangle

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Moto G4 plus

Argos do the same Moto G4 for £160 sim free: http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5768244

Cracking phone at a cracking price!

Why I just bought a MacBook Air instead of the new Pro

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Surface is nice and all

http://blazinglist.com/top-10-best-laptops-hackintosh-2015/

Want ports, power and repairability for less than a couple of grand? Get yer hacking hat on!

Mac administrators brace for big changes to Apple-powered fleets

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Apple doesn't know jack about audiophiles.

I love my Moto G4 because I can plug in Sennheiser PX 100-II foldaways while I am out and about and then swap them for bulkier Grados Labs SR60i headphones when I'm at home. I hate earbuds, wired or bluetoothed, they hurt my ears, distract me due to the discomfort and sound rubbish when I compare them to a decent set of wired on-ear cans. If I want to listen to music wirelessly at home I can stream music to my ancient NAD 3020 and Rogers LS2a speakers via the wifi on my Arcam rDAC.

Equipment that attached to me has to be comfortable to use and easy to replace. Take away my freedom of choice and I will not choose your product. Simple.

McDonald's sues Italian city for $20m after being burger-blocked

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: The real reason

"To be fair, foreign beer is ( if you like brown beer with bits in ) crap."

Please allow me to aquaint you with the brown beers of Belgium and Holland (definitely foreign). Grimbergen, Westmalle and Leffe are my favorite Belgian Trappist style ones. (https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/119/).

Holland does more yellow beers but La Trappe is particularly nice. (https://www.beerhawk.co.uk/dutch-beers).

Most of them taste similar to Newcastle Brown Ale but without the chemicals.

As for Italy's protectionist attitude to areas of outstanding historical architecture and beauty, McDonald's can burger off! Having visited Florence, Pisa and Venice back in the 1980s I would be appalled to see a MaccyD sign anywhere near them.

Apple drops dongle prices to make USB-C upgrade affordable

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Ha bloody ha

I built a PC and installed Mac OS on it, cake and eat it. It has "legacy" ports coming out of its arse, literally.

Hitler's wife's lovely lilac knickers fetch £2,900 at auction

Colin Ritchie
Windows

It's Madness I tell you!

Get your knickers down, before the dreaded time!

Adblock Plus blocks Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook ads

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Don't know what all the fuss is about.

With Firefox lined in uBlock, NoScript and Bluhell Firewall, I haven't seen an ad on a Facebook page for about 2 years (or on the Reg for that matter). The more they fight to feed this rubbish to my screen, the more I will ensure it is blocked.

A simple message for all the ad mongers to understand, they should be getting it by now surely....

Hackers unleash smart Twitter phishing tool that snags two in three users

Colin Ritchie
Windows

I think it might be a definition.

"Offensive security research, even among white-hat hackers, has helped the community to 'think like attackers' and enhance defensive technologies. However, this research comes at a significant cost and there are new arguments emerging that the work of the benevolent security research community is driving down the cost and complexities of attacks against computer networks.

There is a growing sentiment that the intellectual pursuit of exploiting software vulnerabilities and defeating mitigations is simply providing a roadmap for the bad guys to break into computer systems. " - Virus Bulletin.com

Sorry if I am being too literal. Feeling a wee bit Vulcan today.

Bomb-disposal robot violently disposes of Dallas cop-killer gunman

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: You have 20 seconds to comply....

ED 209 didn't have Azimov Circuits either.

During the Second World War, Russia experimented with training dogs to run under German tanks with anti tank mines strapped to them. The project was abandoned when it was found that the dogs were as likely to run under a Russian tank as a German one.

A Bombot is a scarily more efficient invention. https://xkcd.com/1613/

Azimov Circuits for all civilised robots please.

Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware goes FULL SCREEN in final push

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Your Mac's what?

https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc

Nuff said.

Austrians are most likely to bare all on beaches

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Where did Denmark come in the rankings?

Memories of adolescent holidays in Jutland, make me think they gave the Austrians a run for their money.

Forget Game of Thrones as Android ransomware infects TVs

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Killing TVs, a step too far

I'll be staying with a trusty, dumb TV and Humax box system until it dies and may consider a disposably cheap Chromecast as a replacement when it does. A Moto G can then do the heavy lifting and I can keep that secure myself... I think.

Virgin Media goes TITSUP* in South London due to painful piles

Colin Ritchie
Windows

You may want to aim a bit higher than the CEO, if you want it stopped.

Sir R.C.N. Branson,

The Great House,

Necker Island,

British Virgin Islands.

Microsoft buys LinkedIn for the price of 36 Instagrams

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: $26B????

"Despite having a cash pile of about $92bn, Microsoft said it would pay for LinkedIn mostly by issuing new debt." BBC News.

Does that dodge tax?

Oooooklahoma! Where the cops can stop and empty your bank cards – on just a hunch

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Is this the sort of thing that makes Bitcoin attractive to criminals?

Just wondering.

The Windows Phone story: From hope to dusty abandonware

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Told you

Sounds like you may be using compatibility mode drivers somewhere in there. A pair of online gaming friends upgraded to Win10, then had horrendous lag, stuttering and crashes until they discovered that Win10 was using Win8.1 drivers in compatibility mode for their network cards. Win10 ones don't exist for their specific cards.

Just an idea mind, speculation only.

Oculus backtracks on open software promise

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: No killer app

I think Facebook should make the killer app for Oculus. Not sure what or how, but if you buy someone else's dream, you should have a damn good reason for doing so.

If Google had bought it and welded it to an updating Google Earth VRsim you could walk around, that could turn into a killer app, especially if you could take VR trips round the world with friends and make it back in time for the pub.

Just an idea mind.

Airbus to build plane that's even uglier than the A380

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Impressive

Indeed, it is classified as a ship by the International Maritime Organisation due to its maximum flying height being about 4 metres above water. A boatplane not a flying boat. The wings give a ground effect similar to a hovercraft but by a different method.

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Impressive

I think land based planes may have finally beaten boatplanes for fugliness:

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu102/Doctor_Spock/Ekranoplane.jpg

EU vetoes O2 and Three merger: Hutchison mulls legal challenge

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Double damn

I'm a GiffGaff customer also, I'm fine with O2 being a different entity to 3.

In the past, everytime my broadband ISP has been merged with another service, it has deteriorated in service and added complexity or expense or both.

Merger timeline: Toucan > Tiscali > Pipex > TalkTalk, bugger this, off to BT Infinity.

This experience may have coloured my judgement on mobile contracts too:

I moved from T-Mobile to GiffGaff when EE turned up and wanted to muck my PAYG phone account about.

Microsoft: Why we tore handy Store block out of Windows 10 Pro PCs

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: How is Win 10 Enterprise priced up for businesses?

Thanks Raf,

The link to the action pack claims to give 10 Enterprise upgrades amongst other things for £310.

Assuming you have to buy 10 Pro licenses to upgrade to Enterprise, that makes £186 each I reckon.

Thanks for a clear and concise answer m8y!

Colin Ritchie
Windows

How is Win 10 Enterprise priced up for businesses?

Here in the UK Windows 10 costs: Basic (£70), Home (£85) and Pro (£155).

How much does Enterprise cost by comparison, or is this on a sliding scale according to how much Microsoft think they can charge each business?

BOFH: Thermo-electric funeral

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: as if owning IT antiquity was one of those positive character traits

I think I might have one of these lying around:

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

and a box of 10 Superdisks,120mb of mighty diskette for a whole 1GB of usable backup!

How IT are you? Find out now in our HILARIOUS quiz!

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Not now James, we're busy.

Can U dig it? Hell yeah!

Colin Ritchie
Headmaster

Help ma' Boab

You didn't give your Middenface enough L, Mr McDabb.

Alan Moore knows the score and John Wagner wrote it.

TalkTalk broadband customers continue to flee

Colin Ritchie
Windows

I was an involuntary TT customer.

Originally signed up with Toucan in 2000, Toucan got swallowed by Tiscali, who then shoved me into Pipex, who were then bought out by Talk Talk. Toucan were ok, Tiscali bad, Pipex worse and by the time Talk Talk were finished with their transfer debacle, I had given up and jumped ship back to BT in 2012.

Infinity1 makes all of them look very pants indeed.

Microsoft did Nazi that coming: Teen girl chatbot turns into Hitler-loving sex troll in hours

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: The first mistake

I think the first mistake was not starting with the Azimov Circuits.

3 Laws and a conundrum:

"How do you decide what is injurious, or not injurious, to humanity as a whole?" "Precisely, sir," said Daneel. "In theory, the Zeroth Law was the answer to our problems. In practice, we could never decide. A human being is a concrete object. Injury to a person can be estimated and judged. Humanity is an abstraction."

Get lost, Windows 10 and Phone fans: No maps HERE on Microsoft's OS

Colin Ritchie
Windows

I like Here.

Used Here to track my progress very easily, on a 150+ mph high speed train in Kent. Google Maps couldn't tell me where I was till we stopped in Ebbsfleet station, but it could tell me where to eat nearby....

Surprise! British phone wins Best Product at Mobile World Congress

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Re: Back on track...

So £431-511 in real money. I wonder which end of that range the UK will get? £500.

Black Monday: Office 365 down and out in Europe

Colin Ritchie
Windows

Office 360

I referred to it as Office 360 to our tech support, it turns me straight back round to the login screen, repeatedly.

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