Posts by Snowy

Bored 'drivers' pushed Google Waymo into ditching autopilot tech

Re: Are these clever people so thick?

Indeed if you have to be fully engaged and ready to take over at a moments notice you may aswell be driving it!

Camera company, huh? Snap's nerd goggles look destined for landfill

Re: Estimating that the number is 250,000, that's over $30m worth of stock.

Or less if you have to pay someone to take away and dispose of them.

Boss put chocolate cake on aircon controller, to stop people using it

While the cake it not fix it

It did bring to highlight that too many people had access to the server room and they could do stupid things in there. It did in the end make someone fix the to easy access to the server room.

The end result was the cake did indeed fix it :)

Credit insurance tightens for geek shack Maplin Electronics

Changed hands 3 times

and loaded up with debt each time to pay for it, hardly surprising they are getting in to trouble

Wanna exorcise Intel's secretive hidden CPU from your hardware? Meet Purism's laptops

Sure

What one command disables another turns back on again.

Ghost in Musk's machines: Software bugs' autonomous joy ride

Re: Really??

@Jonathan Richards 1

As far as I can see they still call it "autopilot" when it should be considered more an advanced form of cruise control.

How bad can the new spying legislation be? Exhibit 1: it's called the USA Liberty Act

Something with Liberty in the name.

Is in the same vein has a country with democratic in its name. For example Democratic North Korea.

Forget the 'simulated universe', say boffins, no simulator could hit the required scale

Maybe instead of simulating the universe they just created one to observe :)

ISIS and Jack Daniel's: One of these things is not like the other

Well...

They are similar and contact with either of them is not going to have a good ending!!

For Facebook, ignorance is the business model: Social net is shocked – SHOCKED – that people behave badly

Funny

They take no responsibility for ads then complain that people block ads!

Nothing to see here, folks, literally... Citrix mysteriously pulls NetScaler downloads

Re: Um...

I think the idea is the CCleaner compromise was used to compromise some Cisco's system. Which in turn allowed NetScaler downloads to be compromised.

UK Data Protection Bill lands: Oh dear, security researchers – where's your exemption?

Ripe it up and start again!

[quote]The document runs to 218 pages, with 194 clauses, 18 schedules and 112 pages of explanatory notes, and - as has been pointed out by many observers, parts of the text - like this eye-crossing sentence: “Terms used in Chapter 2 and in the GDPR have the same meaning in Chapter 2 as they have in the GDPR” - are fairly Kafka-esque.[/quote]

If a 116 page document needs 112 page to explain it, it is not fit for purpose and needs to be binned and started again from scratch!

We need laws to be clear and easy to understand not so complicated. The more complex it become the more clauses it needs to fill in the holes those complexities makes!

Also if this is replacing GDPR it should state those terms and not quote a something it is replacing. What happens when Euro rewords GDPR, is the old or the new version?

Auto-makers told their autopilots need better safeguards

Still say

[quote]While still evaluating the NTSB report, the electric car-maker added that “We will also continue to be extremely clear with current and potential customers that Autopilot is not a fully self-driving technology and drivers need to remain attentive at all times”. ®[/quote]

Maybe they could start by not calling it an Autopilot and call it something that would make it clear it is something to help you drive not do it for you while you ignore the road!

Everybody without Android Oreo vulnerable to overlay attack

I have a nexus direct from Google

Still not going to get update as it is over 2 years old :/

Amazon crowd-sources new HQ location, Bezos tells mayors to woo him

Re: Take a note from Omni Consumer Products

Yes but can they afford the big tax breaks that Amazon so badly needs to survive? /sarcasm.

Wonder why Congress doesn't clamp down on its gung-ho spies? Well, wonder no more

If I was paranoid

[quote]Between now and the end of the year, a second critical battle between the spy agencies and Congress is going to play out as the NSA and FBI desperately try to retain the ability to spy illegally on American citizens, and lawmakers assess how far they should push back and limit those actions.[/quote]

I would say that some terrorist event is going to happen right before a vote on this?

80% of IT projects in public sector delayed due to IR35 – report

I think not

So 20% told the truth about why the project was delayed and the 80% pinned the failure on IR35?

Snoops 'n' snitches auditor IPCO gets up and running

Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Indeed about of indepent as my left leg is from my right, may look separate but ultimately connected to the same body.

Police deny Notting Hill Carnival face recog tech led to wrongful arrest

Re: Nothing wrong with being "wrongfully" arrested

No longer than that I believe sometime after the heat death of the universe is when they will be lost (ooops sorry securely deleted).

Tech firms take down WireX Android botnet

Re: Google chooses not to, they could.

Too busy finding holes in other people's software to look after their own store?

Google routing blunder sent Japan's Internet dark on Friday

Re: Easy to do...

The "tips & corrections" link at the bottom of this, indeed of all Reg stories only works if you have a email program installed and configured.

Who needs 5G? Qualcomm, Ericsson and Verizon hit 1Gbps with LTE gear

I think not

[quote]The three companies say that, in a controlled Ericsson lab, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 chipset was able to use Verizon spectrum to access 12 simultaneous LTE streams and pull data at a gigabit rate through licensed commercial bands.[quote]

So just increase the network by 11 times and you are good to go? hahahaha!

China's cyber court opens for business; a gavel-free zone?

Just free zone?

[quote]The UK has also experimented with allowing fines for fare dodging and traffic penalties to be done online. In those cases, defendants can log into the system, see the penalty, and then decide whether to accept it and pay it, or dispute it. ®[/quote]

Going down the american path of pleading guilt and paying the fine due to if you dispute it the fine is massively bigger?

Facebook won't change React.js license despite Apache developer pain

Just walk away

The TL;DR version is if you trust FaceBook to play fair you are a fool. You should not use any of FaceBook's "open" software!

Sorry, but those huge walls of terms and conditions you never read are legally binding

Maybe we should all add STMT&CAOR every time we sign something.

(Subject To My Terms And Conditions Available On Request)

Atari shoots sueball at KitKat maker over use of 'Breakout' in ad

A bit late

The advert has been on the TV for if my memory is correct for over a year?

I say, BING DONG! Microsoft's search engine literally cocks up on front page for hours

Looks....

more like clippy to me :)

Taken a while but finally here's the first proper smart-home gizmo

Smart things need smart solutions!

Smart light bulb is anything but smart. If you rarely want a smart light then the better solution would be to make the light fitting. The bulb would then be simpler to make and should be cheaper.

You could also connect the all you lights together using the wiring you already have to do smart things.

OpenAI bot bursts into the ring, humiliates top Dota 2 pro gamer in 'scary' one-on-one bout

If your are going to put in an acronym Dota you could state what it stands for in the article. It stands for Defense of the Ancients (DotA).

Apple signals it's willing to let next-gen web apps compete with iOS apps

Flash is dying long live the new flash

It needs to die now before it gets out in the wild

Hortonworks still burning cash, still aiming to become billion-dollar biz

Working with IBM

So basically just waiting around to be forked over?

UK IBMers lose crucial battle in pension row

Only 25% got booted off

[quote]The case is related to Project Waltz, implemented in 2009 to help Big Blue achieve its 2010 targets for earnings per share and slash costs, resulting in 25 per cent of UK staff booted off the final salary pension scheme.[/quote]

Seem rather unfair to that 25% that got booted out, it should have been all or none to be 100% fair.

Clear August 21 in your diary: It's a total solar eclipse for the smart

You nearly got it

The headline would have been better if you had gone for:

Clear August 21 in your diary: It's a total solar eclipse of the smart

With apologies to Bonnie Tyler

Boffins throw Amazon Alexa on the rack to extract hidden clues

Re: Sales of these are going to crash at some point

The adverts for it show it is always listening, just need to say the correct word for it to respond.

Wallet-snatch hack: ApplePay 'vulnerable to attack', claim researchers

While not good practice sending the cryptogram in cleartext would not be a problem if it only used once.

I am surprised you can reuse the cryptogram I assume it gets verified by the Applepay server each time it is used, so surely a second use would be rejected. Which brings to mind how long is the cryptogram valid for?

Expect the Note 8 to break the bank (and your wallet)

£767 becomes £920 once you add in 20% vat.

Dump X of your crew, DXC Technologies UK told. Hundreds face axe again

Sure a merger...

Reminds me when the company I worked for merged with another. Over the course of a couple of years all the sites belonging to my company closed, none of the site of the other company did.

I wonder who owned the sites that are being closed this round belonged to before the "merger".

Judge uses 1st Amendment on Pokemon Go park ban. It's super effective!

Re: Pokemon not gone yet?

Just thinking that Teiwaz

It also raises the idea that we keep on being told that exercise is good for us. Do TV programs also have to get a permit to tell people to go outside and exercise?

May the excessive force be with you: Chap cuffed after Star Trek v Star Wars row turns bloody

In a fight over...

Star Trek v Star Wars you post a picture of Babylon 5 (better than the other two?) but do have it as an option to question one. Are you trolling us?

Web inventor Sir Tim sizes up handcuffs for his creation – and world has 2 weeks to appeal

Re: A Plea ..

But if they do that then they can make the content only be visible if the advertising is?

Boffins start work on data centre to analyse UK infrastructure

Yes but if it is still a lot cheaper than setting up a royal commission, guess they wanted an answer.

Hot news! Combustible Galaxy Note 7 to return as 'Galaxy Note FE'

Flamingly Expensive?

Amazon squares up to Walmart over boycott calls: Talk sh!t, get hit

Was just about to post the same thing, surely if they were not analyze competitors AWS data then the best thing they could have done is come out and say they are not. Seeing they did not then as you said "you can bet they're doing it"

Have an up vote and a pint :)

Queen's speech announces laws to protect personal data

Re: "Smart Meter Bill"

Hardly a surprise it was in the manifesto,

The key word is offered as it is voluntary to take on when offered.

https://www.lovemoney.com/news/64770/smart-meter-voluntary-conservative-tory-manifesto

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/do-i-have-to-accept-a-smart-meter#can-i-decide-what-data-is-shared

Tesla death smash probe: Neither driver nor autopilot saw the truck

They still call it Autopilot?

Calling the driver assist an Autopilot sure does not help. Maybe instead of issuing six audible warning alerts that he'd spent too long with his hands off the wheel it should have pulled over after 3.

You'll soon be buying bulgur wheat salad* from Amazon, after it swallowed Whole Foods

Just say no

Iceberg lettuce is awful lettuce what you need is some nice tasty Romaine lettuce, which is on offer this week at Aldi!

Re: Have you ever or would you eat bulgur wheat?

@Haku the reviews were very worth reading :)

Brexploitation! PC price wars? Yep. Vendors see who can go higher

Re: More lies through stats

Indeed the price rise as stated is not a like for like products, like the analyst said:

"PC ASPs have been on the rise since Q3 2016," said Marie-Christine Pigott, senior analyst at Context. "The increase has been driven by currency fluctuations, price increases by vendors to offset the effects of higher component costs, and also by a shift to higher-value products such as gaming systems in the consumer segment and powerful, high-end notebooks in the commercial sector."

So not so much as ripoff but selling better stuff at a higher price as in the words of El Reg:

"El Reg hasn't noticed prices of finished products available on the High Street or online rising by that amount, but hey, that's what the numbers stated."

Except that is not what the numbers stated!

Look who's joined the anti-encryption posse: Germany, come on down

Hahahahah

[quote]Force the companies providing the encryption to introduce backdoors.[/quote]

A backdoor in encryption is an open door making encryption less than worthless. Look at how NSA failed to keep their tools locked up.

Mandating encryption backdoors is like making all knives sold (including cutlery and letter openers) to be sold blunt with a large ball welded on the end, with a large fine or jail time for anyone who sharpens or removes the ball.

BT's Ryan Reynolds helicopter Wi-Fi ads 'misleading', thunders ad watchdog

Nice range but...

most people live in houses with walls not outside without walls where the "test" was done