Posts by Dan 55

Beeb flings millions more £s at Capita for telly tax collection

Nice money

Any work which was done was done 15 years ago. They can outsource it all if they want, except Homer's Typing Bird for tax reasons.

View from a Reg reader: My take on the Basic Income

Those are tax credits. Not considered a resounding success, at least until now.

Twitter partly un-kills Vine, which will live again as Vine Camera

I'd expect Twitter to be as profitable as RSS

I.e. as a stand-alone service, it's not going to be profitable and never will be.

You just can't make money off some things.

Beauty is in the AI of the beholder: Young blokes teach computer to judge women by their looks

"pretentious, pompous, arrogant, shallow, frivolous"

Is this talking about the researchers?

USPTO: Hi, Ask Me Anything. Reddit: Can we trademark 'AMA'? USPTO: No.

Re: Considering that list

... and why did they suddenly wake from their slumber for Reddit before rolling over and going back to sleep?

Facebook hires Hillary Clinton to lead assault on fake news^*

Re: Not sharing what tends not to be shared

The problem with fake news is it is shared, just as much as normal news or even more so.

Do they really understand the problem?

Macbook seized or stolen? But you've set a FileVault password, right? Ha, it's useless

Would You Like To Know More?

Shame Apple's security page doesn't mention it.

So I don't know if 10.12.2 has a bundled EFI update meaning you have to install the OS update to get the EFI update, you can't decide to skip it and install a later combo update as you won't get the EFI update with that.

Could a robot vacuum cleaner monitor your data centre?

Good start, but needs a loudspeaker

That way you can try and order your cats and offspring about.

Kids, look at the Deep Learnings! (We’re just going to slurp your data)

Next cloud sells appliances with pre-installed images. One of those is a hard drive + power supply + SD card + case. You just add the Raspberry Pi. So it's getting there.

MacBook Pro owners complain of short batt life – so Apple kills batt life clock in macOS

Re: With this in mind...

16GB is the max as the Intel chipset limits LPDDR3E memory to 16GB. If they were to go with 32GB then it would have to be DDR4 memory which uses more power. They want longer battery life so their OS can hog it.

Second point - how would the CPU address e.g. 512GB/1TB of SSD?

Re: Battery issue resolved

If it's like Sierra on my 2012 MacBook Pro, it uses it up displaying the spinning wheel. It's like Windows 3.1 all over a-fucking-gain.

Ye gods, why did I upgrade? You can tell they don't know how to do OSes any more, just make a new kext with the latest nVidia/AMD/Intel reference drivers and layer more and more iOS-style graphic effects on top.

Re: Command Option P R

That article is full of Mac voodoo fixes. The only thing missing is repairing permissions in Disk Utility and that's because it doesn't let you any more.

WINNER! Crush your loved ones at Connect Four this Christmas

Re: My lottery strategy

If it does come up then you will be sharing with more people as it's in the birth date & month range.

Microsoft's Edge to flush Adobe Flash in Windows 10 Creator’s Update

Re: so much hatred for continuing smokers

Are people actually more health now then before? is the air we all have to breath actually cleaner and less toxic.

I can tell you've not worked in a smoking office.

I don't have autoplaying videos on Firefox Mobile, there's a setting which exposes the config name-value pair.

Security! experts! slam! Yahoo! management! for! using! old! crypto!

Re: Teach, train, don't complain only...

Spread the knowledge when the training budget has been blown on jollies in other countries by those who are always somehow first in the queue and the grunts can't even set up internal workshops in the same office because those hours aren't charged to an end client?

Then people complain about mediocre software.

Never mind, we can use Yahoo's wonderful secure mobile sign-on app instead of passwords

Oh. That gives them your phone number which has just been stolen.

Trump meets Google – exclusive transcript

Re: Quantum Communications Rule ...

What makes You think they're Random?

Re: Whow, this Trump sounds awfully coherent.

Apparently his word salad is a good way to get followers... It doesn't say much, it seems to suggest he's on the same side as the listeners, and it lets listeners fill in the blanks with anything they want mentally, which will be something they want to hear but Trump didn't say.

Understanding Trump’s Use of Language

Data use rules set to be loosened under new EU e-Privacy laws - report

Yay for lobbyists

Website operators would not be required to display notices asking users to consent to the use of cookies for behavioural advertising purposes if the privacy settings on users' web browsers are already configured in a way which signals that consent, according to the proposals, it said.

So that means removal of the cookie notices, because servers can't query client settings.

It also means huge, "please allow us to set your cookies" notices if servers set a cookie and later find it's not there... like if you're running an ad blocker.

Yeah... not sure if being badgered into accepting Revcontent and Taboola clickbait crap is an improvement.

And telecos can get in on all that too it seems.

Infosec bods: This is a backdoor in Skype for Macs. Microsoft: No.

Re: Mac Security LOL

In my case UNIX command line & environment, nice GUI (I'm too old for Linux's shit), and reliable fixable hardware. However the hardware stopped being that long time ago and the GUI's getting iOSified.

Re: Mac Security LOL

Isn't this a Skype problem?

Rogue One: This is the Star Wars back story you've been looking for

Death Star plans have no password and are too big to upload quickly

Is that a new name for the Purple Palace?

Re: Gore? Good.

You'd expect Luke would have been said, "Oh God, the fuckers burnt my aunt and uncle and dumped them outside the house! Why God, why?!" at least once. Or Leia is left with PTSD and flashbacks after being shut in a room with the floating needle drone and Vader and tortured.

They didn't really address the violence.

OpenStreetView? You are no longer hostage to Google's car-driven vision

Re: Portable atlas?

Here Maps (or it's new name of Here WeGo.. :/ ) lets you download the whole planet, space permitting.

Reschedule the holiday party, Patch Tuesday is here and it's a big one

Re: Update nightmares

They are out of it even though it looks like they're not. You get them even if you're not logged in with an Apple ID.

You're discharging the battery wrong

There are complaints about Sierra killing battery life so in 10.12.2 Apple removes the time left indicator which appears when you click on the battery icon in the menu bar.

Happy Christmas

The fallout from this set of patches given all three companies' QA will be spectacular.

Blue sky basic income thinking is b****cks

Re: Global Depopulation is the answer

The lizard people are now in charge of the UK and US if that helps.

Re: Haven't we just had this rant?

And it's in a better news category. But only just.

Samsung revival hamstrung by 2014 Google deal – analyst

They've got Tizen as an OS but it's a clusterfuck, as is most software Samsung has anything to do with.

The first set of 4K tellies they sold showed 1080p scaled up because Tizen couldn't do 4K even though the hardware could.

You sure about that?

I don't think anyone's missing the days when there were three copies everything (AOSP Calendar, Samsung Calendar, Google Calendar...).

If you bought a dildo in Denver, the government must legally be told

Queen May's jotted this one down

And is wondering how to get it into the Digital Economy Bill.

Uh-oh! Microsoft has another chatbot – but racism is a no-go for Zo

How can it not be gamed into saying something sexist, racist, whatever-ist?

Perhaps it's some kind of bland-bot that doesn't express any opinion, in which case I can download Eliza.

TalkTalk hacker gets iPhone taken away by Norwich Youth Court

So iPhones do SQL injection, do they?

I suppose this judge must be normal for Norfolk.

Samsung SmartCam: Yes, those eyes really are following you around the room

And that is where this very promising piece of hardware falls down – in the software.

Buggy software? Samsung? Are you seriously telling me they might have made one more piece of I-o-Tat waiting to join the Marai botnet?

Higher tech prices ARE here to stay. It's Mr Farage's new Britain

Re: @AC

Theresa May scuppered his efforts by putting a block on Chinese investment in Hinckley Point and making it clear she doesn't trust the Chinese.

That must be some alternate reality where Hinckley Point C isn't going ahead.

Re: Brexit means brexit.

Of course they count given the closeness of the result. They might have abstained because they didn't like either option, they didn't believe the referendum campaigns, amongst other things.

Thanks for the advice about education, Dr Nick Riviera. I consider education lifelong so it's not really an insult. Hopefully there won't be too many cuts to adult education in post-Brexit Britain... except higher education of course. And probably any other kind of education due to plummeting tax receipts if the government wilfully persists with a plan of leaving both the EU and EEA/EFTA (the referendum only specified leaving the EU).

Re: Brexit means brexit.

Half (52%) did not vote to leave and half (48%) did not vote to remain. The turnout was 72%. 28% didn't vote at all.

Today's Brexit news

Having previously said that foreign higher education students will be counted as part of the immigration statistics, unlike many other countries, today it's announced that the number of visas for higher education students will be halved. So half of four and a half-billion in fees + accommodation + what they spend on goods and services (plus VAT) lost.

Nobody thinks higher education students are an immigration problem. They can't get a job and they pay for the NHS.

Utter stupidity and it's only because the dull-witted Tory party are scared shitless of the mob voting UKIP (which they will probably do anyway) and want to come out and say they could cut at least 150,000 a year off the figures.

They will fuck up the country.

BT's hiring! 500 more customer service folk to answer your angry calls

Re: Customer Hatred

I see your Orange France and raise you Telefonica.

Icelandic Pirate Party sails away from attempt to form government

Re: Nice

Well, if they do what happened in Spain, there were elections, nobody agreed with anyone, elections were repeated, nobody agreed with anyone, elections were repeated, and finally as enough people got bored and didn't vote the last time, it tipped the balance towards the incumbent party and the incumbent opposition party imploded. So I'd hold onto your cynicism for the moment.

UK.gov has outsourced tech policy to Ofcom because it is clueless – SNP techie

Re: Pot meet kettle

Seems strange that an SNP MP of all politicians would be against more data sharing considering his party's record on the matter.

Maybe he's their version of David Davis (when he took up civil liberties matters), his party can point to him and say "look, we've got him, we're nice really".

Microsoft announces 16 years of support for Windows, SQL Servers

At last

It's what they should be doing with Windows 7.

They're also preemptively looking for another income stream because they know customers have no intention of moving to the latest version until the last minute and that's only if they've got no other choice, but anyway.

Ransomware scum offer free decryption if you infect two mates

Re: Your chance to win!

Don't laugh, Johnny B. Shite's got an off-premises backup. He's doing quite well.

Germany warns Moscow will splash cash on pre-election propaganda and misinformation spree

Possibly. There are a lot of people are destabilised enough to use Facebook in the first place.

I didn't downvote BTW.

IBM has an on-prem cloud it thinks can go big in Asia

Do you have a pile of x86 going spare in a country we don't operate our cloud in?

Pay us so you can use it anyway!

Neo-Nazi man jailed for anti-Semitic Twitter campaign against MP

Re: You must not delete the internet history on any of the devices.

You must not use private browsing mode?

You must not use AAISP or a VPN based abroad?

For God's sake, stop trying to make Microsoft Bob a thing. It's over

At the moment it looks like the poor woman has been sucked through her laptop screen into MS' version of The Upside Down. It's empty and desolate except a floating white window (program has stopped responding, do you wish to restart or wait some more?), a possible way back through the mirror-world laptop, a Skype, a recycle bin with a plant stuck in it, and a Bob.

She'd better get out of there before the Bob realises she's there, hunts her down, and eats her up.

Nobody's going to pay money for this, it's not going to gain any traction. It's as absurd as MS getting into the videocard business. MS would be better off leaving the VR hardware alone and making just the software platform.

Re: Destroy All Monsters

No access to private e-mail from work. It needs to be a web form, preferably with HTTPS, because, you know, everyone has to start somewhere.

Make it so.