Posts by Kevin Johnston 1542 publicly visible posts • joined 6 May 2007
You forgot the 'Help' option which links to the FAQ page containing half a dozen simple questions where they have already got an answer. Those answers will include the 'This is solved in the next release, please contact your Sales representative to ensure you are signed up to our automated update program'.
Most of the games I was keeping hold of my Win10 Gaming system for now play very politely through Steam on my Linux system although I confess I have a Win10 VM for a couple of apps which are too much effort to setup in WINE or similar.
This may not be The Year Of The Linux Desktop but if you are willing to stray from the WinOS herd you will be welcomed with a comforting look'n'feel
quote "Assuming that they can't just lift them off the phone itself"
Perfectly demonstrated by Mythbusters who lifted a fingerprint off a CD case to open a fingerprint coded lock with a bit of sticky-backed plastic and a 100% success
As commented above, fingerprints are one of the weakest form of biometrics which are most easily damaged and stolen.
I'm sure I have put this up on a previous story but some time ago so it is fair to give it another outing.
A sail loft in Cowes on the Isle of Wight was struggling and the manager went round with the accountant and checked every aspect to see how they could save enough to last until the next batch of orders. Eventually the manager announced he was the only spare headcount and he was giving up his job but would be staying on part-time unpaid until things improved. A few months later orders came in and he could start taking a salary again.
Oddly enough the staff would have done anything he asked after that
I had a Ford Focus where the Check Engine light came on so I slowed carefully and stopped then switched off. I waited a few minutes then started the engine again and listened carefully but could hear no unusual noises. I drove gently to my pet mechanic who put it on the diagnostic reader and apparently it was saying to add some AdBlue or whatever it is that goes in the secret tank behind the rear bumper assembly (which requires special tools/fluids and then a re-connect to the diagnostic reader to clear the flag)
Great one there Ford
It also raise the worry about the speedometer accuracy as while it may be able to record distance quite accurately that means nothing once paired with Microsoft Minutes.
Officer - "Do you know what speed I recorded you travelling at?"
Driver - "Well it depends, it may have been 60mph, or 2mph, or 397mph...the needle on the speedo has trouble keeping up with the variations and the digital display only shows 888"
I appreciate that a geo-fence would go straight to names but surely the first step would have been all that wonderful CCTV footage that places (especially banks) have in play. Even the real-world TV shows demonstrate there is enough that law-enforcement can immediately access to allow them to do some basic tracking at which point you have a much smaller sub-set of suspects. Once you add in footage from private companies along the route that could be requested the only hard bit is fitting a name to a face and they all have that wonderful facial recognition software 'on test'
You forgot toothbrush.
OK most are actually Bluetooth [how very ironic] on the latest Braun iO series and while they say it has Bluetooth they seem to neglect to say why but their TriZone really does have Wifi to connect to the remote display to show how well you are cleaning your teeth!!!!
Is it me? I just do not get why you would want to take a simple piece of kit and add a mass of complexity with who knows what vulnerabilities and which shortens the useful life of the kit all to add 'Using a mobile phone' to the features?
As the previous commenters have said, these things should last decades and I would struggle to find a single reason why being able to use a remote control is actually a good thing. OK, a remote for a TV is good but why allow the manufacturer to change the user experience after you have bought it or to track what you choose to watch.
So here is a silly thought, what if the people creating the ChatGPT stuff and the people writing the TurnitIn detector stuff are the same people? They get paid to create the essay and paid to scan it and then they adjust the detection results to maximise their income. One year they lean towards a higher detection rate and the next year they offer an upgraded ChatGPT which squeaks more essays through. Then the next year the detector is upgraded which catches more ChatGPT essays...
They could probably run that for decades before anyone bothered to check
The 90's called and were overjoyed someone is still living there...
All the dinosaur companies moving from Notes to O365/Teams/etc are falling into the usual trap of not taking any notice of new functions/features and using the same config/processes as when you installed the software 20 years ago and are relying on MS to just handle everything. All the other customers (old and new) are using all the new functionality (and some missing from your moan that have been available since 1995 at least) for a resilient rapid development system which can run on almost any host OS, can be upgraded in place with minimal effort/cost.
Notes integrates very well with a lot of systems, even most MS packages now that MS has stopped changing standards version by version to break that functionality.
btw - that server startup clean/repair has not been an issue since V6 (2004 if I remember rightly) and at that time Exchange servers ran on a knife-edge and upgrades were new servers/new install of Exchange and migrate the mailfiles...major project taking days/weeks to achieve
and the only difference between running a desktop 24x7 instead of running a server 24x7 is......
If you are running Linux then it is not a cost difference and the configuration will be no more complex so basically you are running a server just with a few missing functions
You have to remember that the current 747 relates to the original 747 in about the same way the latest Ford Escort relates to the original Ford Escort. Boeing put a lot of effort into keeping that pretence going as otherwise they would have to do full certification on every model instead of relying on 'grandfathered' approvals. The 737MAX is a perfect example of why that grandfathering should not be so freely applied
Can we get some sort of round of honours for this guy? With a very small number of politically driven exceptions he seems to be the only person willing/able to stand up and point to all the ways that big Corporations (and some politicians who may bear closer checks/cheques) are ignoring laws around data privacy to maximise profits
My main worry about moving to Linux for everything was the gaming side. I don't have a lot of games but I am a bit of a completionist and there are some I haven't finished exploring. I did try WINE etc a few years ago with mixed results so backed off to allow them more Dev time.
I treated myself to a new gaming spec laptop which came with Windows 11 and a whole orchestra of bells and whistles but in the past couple of months it has started freezing when I close games be that locally installed or run from Steam. I have made sure all the updates are in place and generally been a good nodding dog but I have now ordered a fresh SSD to put in it so I can set it up on Linux and see how it behaves as I don't think it could be much worse.
I understand Meta claiming that them showing a preview/snippet could work to boost traffic/subscriptions to the source media but to paraphrase Christine Keeler...they would say that wouldn't they.
By giving people a snippet and a link to open a new tab/window to read the article, Meta's intention is that you will come straight back and continue to be monetised. If they stopped showing them then people may go direct to the news site and skip out Meta altogether. I am sure that an independent audit would show that Meta makes more money from the process than any linked media site
This was exactly my thinking when I read the story, why does all this critical equipment use standard wall mounted mains sockets which are just begging for some numpty to mess about with? Surely you have two mains socket strips inside each locked cabinet to distribute the primary and secondary mains power to the units and these strips are fed from a fused system which is also behind lock and key (or maybe a numberpad lock)
I made a point of splitting the previous commuting time 50/50 so each side benefits. I know I do more hours than my contract requires (and that is unpaid because of my exalted position...high enough to get no overtime but low enough so even the cleaners rank higher) but as I am a team of one, it would gain me nothing to be pedantic whereas being flexible allows me some leeway in how much I have to obey the bureaucratic business processes
While I understand and agree with most of your comments, the problem with SSO is that the bad chaps only need to break one username/password to get access to everything that person uses. While this is not good, that same leadership mandates that everyone below Important Manager needs to be forced into SSO including people with Admin access to systems so to protect the Admin stuff they come up wth a new extra layer (or 10) which those Admins have to fight with and just for fun each layer has an inactivity timeout and needs a new password to log back in
Calming down now...thinking butterflies and bunnies in grassy meadows....Nurse, could I have my next pills early please
With something like a cooling unit there is a very large zone before it becomes over-specced although I understand what you mean. The biggest risk with having spare capacity is that someone has a bright idea on how to make use of that excess and in no time at all you need to uprate everything.
I had to replace my phone recently as it started having issues (I had been ignoring the gradual battery deterioration as it lasted long enough each day). Problem is I need a physical keyboard as I have fat fingers which hit at least 6 keys every time on a soft keyboard. I ended up getting a Unihertz Titan Slim at just under £300 (the phone it replaces was over £700) and you may want to check one out as it has your missing IR Blaster. I even set it up to use on our main TV just so I can annoy people when they are hogging the remote.
I refer my honourable colleagues to an old sketch by Ronnie Barker about a simplification of the tax system...
How much did you earn last year?
How much have you got left?
Send it to us...
Has about as much thought behind it as IR35 but oddly could increase the receipts through it's simple honesty
I used them too on my mail server until I moved provider to EE at which point no mail came through. Disabling the Spamhuas check unplugged the blockage so I have the choice of a provider which has been good in all other aspects and just deal with the Spam or else go back round the 'which ISP do I try next whack-a-mole
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