Posts by Charlie van Becelaere

America says banks can now transact using so-called stable crypto-coins. What does that actually mean?

Re: "The incongruity between the treatment of cash and cryptocurrency"

Thanks for that link. That's actually an understandable explanation of the concepts.

Lay down your souls to the gods of rock 'n' roll: Conspiracy theorists' 5G 'vaccine' chip schematic is actually for a guitar pedal

Re: "adjust the frequency"

Beat me to it!

Confessions at a Christmas do: 'That time I took down an entire neighbourhood'

Re: What in the...

Upvote for the typo

graphy.

Windows might have frozen – but at least my feet are toasty

Re: You from up North ?

I wondered about that as well.

It's always DNS, especially when a sysadmin makes a hash of their semicolons

Remember the days when 'we made it up as we went along'?

Remember? That's where I live!

Tech support scammer dialed random number and Australian Police’s cybercrime squad answered

Poetry

That's funny, you don't look Vogon.

Now that's a Finnish-ing move: Finland offers free 90-day tryout of Helsinki tech scene with childcare thrown in

That's the country for me

The Pythons had this figured out quite a while ago.

Finland

(I give them bonus points for the gratuitous mention of Belgium in they lyrics.)

H₂? Oh! New water-splitting technique pushes progress of green hydrogen

Re: > blasting microwave radiation at a watery chemical soup

That sounds a lot like photosynthesis. Another fairly mature process.

Quick thinking and an explanation for everything – key CTO qualities

Re: I've been fired ...

"Does anybody under thirty even know what ASCII art is?"

I was about to reply that I do. Then I realised that said reply would be more than two decades late.

Good news: Boffins have finally built room-temperature superconductors. Bad news: You'll need a laser, a diamond anvil, and a lot of pressure

It sounds as though

the key is in the structure - the atoms' being bound in a crystalline lattice. Perhaps a sheet of diamond doped with sulphur in exactly the right spots would do. I'm off to the shed for a bit of doping (as it were).

Excel is for amateurs. To properly screw things up, those same amateurs need a copy of Access

Re: Access

Upvoted for the "out of touch" comment, but I have to say it's dead simple to make a notice of Emily's birthday in Excel.

From the Department of WCGW: An app-controlled polycarbonate lock with no manual override/physical key

Just popped in to say thanks. I don't quite need a new keyboard, but "mene tekel" takes the cake.

Cheers!

A decades-old lesson on not inserting Excel where it doesn't belong

Re: spreadsheets!

If one counts on one's fingers base 2, one can get to 1,023 without resorting to toes.

Learnt this trick at an SF convention during my uni days.

Big IQ play from IT outsourcer: Can't create batch files if you can't save files. Of any kind

Re: Idiocy

One of the problem with outsourcing is that it is taken as a solution to the wrong problem.

Often outsourcing is seen as a way to save the cost of doing something. While it should only b a way of saving on the burden of doing that thing, but knowing well it will cost you more.

Yes. This is exactly right.

Groq is hard to grok but reckons its AI chips roq: Ex-Googlers' unorthodox design now shipping to customers

The most remarkable thing to me

is that no one had used that name for a tech company before now.

The power of Bill compels you: A server room possessed by a Microsoft-hating, Linux-loving Demon

Re: Trumpet

No, you’re thinking of a Strumpet.

As I recall, the collective noun for strumpets is a flourish. Yes, a flourish of strumpets.

You're welcome.

Amazon spies on staff, fires them by text for not hitting secretive targets, workers 'feel forced to work through pain, injuries' – report

Re: If you do not like this ...

Beware: the more that Amazon grows, the more that others die. What will competition be like in 20 years time ?

All restaurants are Taco Bell.

Paris because her erstwhile burger joint will be absorbed as well.

Um, almost the entire Scots Wikipedia was written by someone with no idea of the language – 10,000s of articles

Re: International Recognition

For those of us a bit older, learning Latin at school has proved one of the most useless things I have ever been made to do.

I never had the Latin for the Judgin' so it was coalminin' for me.

PowerShell 7.1 Release Candidate is lurking around the corner, but first there's Preview 6 to poke and prod

Rather Cruel

"The migration from PowerShell Core 6.2 to 7.0 is well under way by all accounts (handy, because support for the latter will soon be pulled)"

Hardly seems sporting to pull support for the version users are adopting - and that before the next one is even released.

Co-inventor of the computer mouse, William English, dies

Indeed

"The Mother of All Demos", an event on 9 December 1968 in San Francisco

That demo still amazes - at least as long as one has some concept of what was happening in computing at that time. It's quite amazing.

I'll hoist a pint in English's honour even though I do try to do as much as I can without using the mouse - I'm still keyboard-first.

'I'm telling you, I haven't got an iPad!' – Sent from my iPad

Re: Which is why I always turn off email sigs...

"How about "Sent from my quantum computer at CIA Headquarters"?"

Or better, "Routed through the quantum computers at the NSA."

It's been five years since Windows 10 hit: So... how's that working out for you all?

Over the years

I've used nearly every MS OS from DOS 6 through Windows 10, missing only 2000, Vista, and 8. I think my favourite was 7 (although OS/2 Warp ran Windows better than Windows, and I still have fond memories of that OS).

10 seems basically OK, but to agree with several others here, I'm not really thrilled with automatic updates of the spyware subsystems either. My Mint laptop chugs along quite nicely on a WinXP spec machine.

Google extends homeworking until this time next year – as Microsoft finds WFH is terrific... for Microsoft

Re: WFH is also good

So long as Cthulhu doesn't talk back or make useful suggestions, you're probably fine.

As my Dad has said to me many times, "I know the voices in my head aren't real, but sometimes they have such good ideas."

USA seeks Moon and Mars nuke power plant designs ready to fly in 2027

Re: What are they going to do with the heat?

"Back of the fag(*)-packet calculation"

Is there really any space to write out any calculations there? I should think they're filled with warnings and notices of enhanced flavour and whatnot.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Hang on, the PDP 11/70 has dropped offline

Re: There's more than one way to stop a server room

Thumbs up for "Cowboy and Witless!"

Bill Gates debunks 'coronavirus vaccine is my 5G mind control microchip implant' conspiracy theory

Re: We need to get the hat trick on this conspiracy theory!!

Not exactly what you requested, and not exactly current anymore, but here's an "interesting" further development possibility -

http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2012/08/rabies-resistant-peruvian-mutants.html

51 years after humans first set foot on the Moon, a deepfaked Nixon mourns how Armstrong and Aldrin never made it home

Re: Alternative fakery

Yes?

Oh, sorry. Wenslydale's my name. I thought you were talking to me.

Captain, the computer has identified 250 alien stars that infiltrated our galaxy – actual science, not science-fiction

“At the LHC, we have incredible simulations, but we worry that machines trained on them may learn the simulation and not real physics," said Bryan Ostdiek

That's one of the wisest things I've heard from a lab in a long time.

NASA mulls going all steam-punk with a fleet of jumping robots to explore Saturn and Jupiter's mysterious moons

Units

"Each complete bot is about the size of a soccer ball...."

That's nearly the same as a football, no?

NASA to send Perseverance, a new trundle bot, and Ingenuity, the first interplanetary helicopter, to sniff out life on Mars in July

Avoiding Contamination

"Scientists are going to be looking for trace chemicals from billions of years ago, and must be careful not to contaminate the vehicle with any material from Earth."

So they're importing materials for its construction from other planets?

Dude, where's my laser?

It's always aliens!

Remember that time we used up a whole bog roll in a day? You thought that was aliens as well.

The aliens use it to clean their probes, natch.

NASA renames dark-energy telescope after its first Chief of Astronomy and Mother of Hubble: Nancy Grace Roman

Re: "The Coronagraphic Instrument is an exoplanet hunter"

Hardly. Corona has barely enough colour to distinguish it from water.

Linux desktop org GNOME Foundation settles lawsuit with patent troll

I'm not sure

from reading the article whether GNOME paid anything to the trolls. I'm hoping they didn't, but my very close skimming of the text doesn't give me any certainty. Do we know? Did they pay some kind of permanent protection money, or are the trolls really afraid?

NASA launches guide to Lunar etiquette now that private operators will share the Moon with governments

Re: The Artemis program aims to put the first woman and second man

The Artemis program aims to put the first woman and thirteenth man on the Moon by 2024

Nope. Buzz Aldrin is going again.

If you don't LARP, you'll cry: Armed fun police swoop to disarm knight-errant spotted patrolling Welsh parkland

Nerd Check

It's not clear from the article whether this fellow was wearing chain or plate. I need to know so I can check his armour class.

Re: Meanwhile in Bristol....

Here's hoping Banksy will add some artistry to the walls.

There's a world out there with a hexagon vortex over its pole packed with hydrocarbon ice crystals. That planet is Saturn

Re: The 7 mists are really 7 veils

Now now, let's try to keep our heads, shall we?

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

Historical

reasons for this one:

FUDCo.

Cheers

Absolutely everyone loves video conferencing these days. Some perhaps a bit too much

Re: Paris...

"Is that a less colourful version of CMYK?"

Not really, just less dark.

Zoom's end-to-end encryption isn't actually end-to-end at all. Good thing the PM isn't using it for Cabinet calls. Oh, for f...

Re: To be clear ...

I have no doubt that I shall be using the phrase "economies of truth" frequently.

Cheers, and have one on me!

Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo dies aged 92

Sadly

I've never seen any of the movies (but Depardieu as Obelix does strike me as inspired casting), and I've not read any of the books in years, probably not since school days in French class.

I think my library needs a bit of expansion.

RIP, M. Uderzo.

All roads lead to Bork in Kansas as Windows puts on a show for motorists

Hmm

"Still, it's nice to see that problem being shared with drivers."

Aren't many Windows problems due to shared drivers?

The show Musk go on: Tesla defies Silicon Valley coronavirus lockdown order, keeps Fremont factory open

Re: Unless you're eating the loo roll . . .

Plenty of fibre there (especially the tasty middle!)...

It's Baaaaaack (or is it?): Microsoft Teams suffers a Tuesday totter

Re: We need remote cattle prods ASAP!

Perhaps that could be wired to the "any" key?

Broadcom sues Netflix for its success: You’re stopping us making a fortune from set-top boxes, moans chip designer

Re: Hopefully...

" As bad as Apple. Anyone starts making money, they sue "Only we're allowed to make money!" "

But you've forgotten that Apple have filed a patent on making money. Of course there may be prior art ....

(Paris, because she has prior art as well.)

Meltdown The Sequel strikes Intel chips – and full mitigation against data-meddling LVI flaw will slash performance

"Just like Meltdown, Spectre, the MSD attacks and the SWAPGS attack discovered in the past, the LVI-LFB attack once again defeats security boundaries enforced at the silicone level," Botezatu said.

At first I thought it was supposed to be silicon, then I remembered Paris.

Hello, support? What do I click if I want some cash?

This wouldn't have happened

had they stuck with OS/2.

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

Named "Dave" by the increasingly unimaginative Reg-onymiser

So real name Rodney?

No, real name Dave.

Maersk prepares to lay off the Maidenhead staffers who rescued it from NotPetya super-pwnage

Well done

An extra upvote simply for using the word mendicants.

Now I'm off for a dose of my special mendication.

HP hostile takeover warms up: Xerox queues print job cash_and_shares.pdf, mails it to the board to mull over

Why do I get the feeling

that Xerox may find hardware / software / services contracts intermingled in a none-too-transparent way?

Caveat Emptor!