* Posts by Dan 55

15336 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2009

Stop forcing benefits down my throat and give me hard cash, dammit

Dan 55 Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Flexibility doesn't exist at lower income levels

I don't know if you've read the entire thread or not (it seems like you haven't), but it talks about people's employment conditions, not about people spending their wages once they've earned them.

And we look at the evidence, draw a conclusion based on the evidence, and conclusion we find that we wouldn't like to be in their shoes. You say, "Who are we to judge how they spend their money", which, if you pardon my French, has fuck all to do with the subject we're talking about.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Flame

Re: Flexibility doesn't exist at lower income levels

The povs are loving their zero hours contracts, aren't they? Who are we to say they aren't? They love them, they're snapping them up, they can't get enough. They're choosing zero hours contracts over other kinds of contracts, the povs are, because they love them so much.

Sports Direct didn't know what to do, they wanted to offer traditional contracts but the povs wanted to work precariously and not know how many hours they were going to work until the day before and not know how much money they were going to make that week. They wanted to work precariously and raise a family with zero hours contracts or save for a house with a partner with zero hours contracts, to have that extra flexibility and bargaining power. So Sports Direct had to offer the povs zero hour contracts, because the povs were crying out for them.

And who are we to say otherwise or know better or criticise, the povs had the upper hand in this employment relationship and they were begging for zero hours contracts.

The crap one has to read...

Dan 55 Silver badge
Facepalm

That'll work. The employer offers a bowl of rice as salary and there'll be someone somewhere desperate enough to agree. And if there isn't then just wait a bit more.

This is why we have these socialist structures imposed on us in the first place. Or maybe they were workers' rights hard-won over centuries, because being paid a pittence and ending up in poor houses wasn't very nice.

Never mind, Call me Dave is busy winding the UK back to Downton Abbey and everyone will be happy. Well, everyone who matters anyway.

It's enough to get your back up: Eight dual-bay SOHO NAS boxes

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: HDMI-CEC

Kodi can be set up to listen on a port, there are controller apps such as Yatse that can be used on a tablet or phone.

How Kodi is launched in the first place is an interesting question though. Maybe you have to launch it via the web interface? If Kodi hasn't been pre-configured to use a controller app or you don't have one then do you have to plug in a USB mouse?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Macs can be problematic

Apple has moved over to SMB for everything except network Time Machine backups now in their latest OSes. Although their SMB implementation isn't perfect either, however they can't use that excuse any more. Instead you just hit a wall of silence until the next OS upgrade and hope they've done it better.

Windows 10 marks the end of 'pay once, use forever' software

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Business market?

I also bet volume discounts can also be obtained by OEMs if they make secure boot mandatory on a model or two. If they do do this, it'd certainly be worth their while for the cheapest models.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Devil

Re: Come now, children, let's not fight over this!

Bollocks, they've gone and made OEM support of allowing Secure Boot to be disabled optional instead of mandatory as it was with Windows 8. That slipped passed me.

I knew it. MS boiling the frog again. Privacy, secure boot, and control over your own computer. The fuckers.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Meh

Re: Fact, or speculation and FUD?

If you were really a software developer you wouldn't like to target a moving platform.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Fact, or speculation and FUD?

If Windows is a service then by definition you're going to have to pay for the service.

Perhaps not current devices (they need to build a base for universal apps and the shop) but there's nothing to stop them charging rent for Windows on future devices, perhaps you might get devices with Windows 10 Starter and if you want more features you pay.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: OS X upgrades "cheap"?

They've been free since 10.7 and the hardware requirements haven't changed since 10.8...

El Reg touches down at the ESA's Spanish outpost, sniffs around

Dan 55 Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Think of the children!

That's a good threat to use on children... Get learning your STEM or you'll end up like Tim Worstall.

Gay emojis? GAY EMOJIS?! Not here in Russia, comrade

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: The irony being…

Well actually they did replace computers with typewriters a year or two ago, using Snowden as an excuse. Presumably with macho Italian Olivettis.

Windows 10: Buy cheap, buy twice, right? Buy FREE ... buy FOREVER

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Windows vs Linux

If they're trying to counter it they're going the wrong way about it. Their privacy policy can be changed at any time and Windows 10 autoupdates, so you accept the changes on the privacy policy by continuing your use of the computer.

That, for many people, is enough to make them look for alternatives.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Free you say?

I imagine that MS are more worried than Apple, MS haven't got the shiny consumer ecosystem that Apple have where you buy another thing because you've got one thing.

Windows 10 is not free, you pay with exposure... of your personal data, it makes the Yosemite Spotlight thing look like a storm in a teacup. Either Apple will follow them or they won't and as they are blabbing on about privacy lately hopefully they won't.

Don't want Windows 10 FILTH on the company network? Step this way

Dan 55 Silver badge

It seems that if you have OEM machines with OEM Windows then, yes, you will have to stamp on Windows 10 installs. MS weren't upfront about which update GWX was in so making blacklisting the update in WSUS difficult at the beginning. Laptops could download GWX at home. There are determined fanboys who download the ISO. Etc.

Microsoft Edge web browser: A well-presented mea culpa

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: "It's worth turning on the (potentially) privacy-invading Cortana for that feature alone."

My privacy is probably largely an illusion, yes. That doesn't mean I see any need to Cc everything I do with MS' operating system to MS just to make sure it is.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: "It's worth turning on the (potentially) privacy-invading Cortana for that feature alone."

Yes. Isn't this Windows 10?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: "It's worth turning on the (potentially) privacy-invading Cortana for that feature alone."

It's the Bing toolbar all over again.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: "It's worth turning on the (potentially) privacy-invading Cortana for that feature alone."

But you can decide not to download Chrome and the OS on the computer doesn't push you into having a Google account.

Edge is part of the OS and if you were mad enough to log in with a Microsoft account or create one or maybe even use the built-in e-mail client to log into Outlook.com then a load of apps promptly start uploading stuff to the mothership.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Facepalm

"It's worth turning on the (potentially) privacy-invading Cortana for that feature alone."

Yes, it's worth uploading all this to Redmond so you can check restaurant times:

"Cortana is your personal assistant. Cortana works best when it can learn about you and your activities by using data from your device, your Microsoft account, third-party services and other Microsoft services. To enable Cortana to provide personalized experiences and relevant suggestions, Microsoft collects and uses various types of data, such as your device location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on your device. Cortana also learns about you by collecting data about how you use your device and other Microsoft services, such as your music, alarm settings, whether the lock screen is on, what you view and purchase, your browse and Bing search history, and more. You can manage what data Cortana uses, and what it knows about you in Cortana Settings and Notebook. More about the individual features, and how to manage them can be found at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=522360.

Location services. Cortana regularly collects and uses your current location and location history to give you the most relevant notices and results and to make suggestions that help save you time, such as traffic and location based reminders. Cortana can only work if location services are on, so if you turn them off, Cortana will be disabled.

Text messages and email. Cortana accesses your messages to do a variety of things such as: allowing you to add events to your calendar, apprising you of important messages, and keeping you up to date on events or other things that are important to you, like package or flight tracking. Cortana also uses your messages to help you with planning around your events and offers other helpful suggestions and recommendations.

Speech and Input Personalization. To help Cortana better understand the way you speak and your voice commands, speech data is sent to Microsoft to build personalized speech models and improve speech recognition. On Windows devices, Cortana can only work if Input Personalization is on, so if you turn it off, Cortana will be disabled. See the Windows Input Personalization section for more information.

Apps and services. Cortana uses data collected through other Microsoft services to provide personalized suggestions. For example, Cortana uses data collected by the MSN Sports app so it can automatically display information about the teams you follow. It also learns your favorite places from Microsoft's Maps app so it can offer better suggestions. Your interests in Cortana's Notebook can be used by other Microsoft services, such as Bing or MSN Apps, to customize your interests, preferences, and favorites in those experiences as well. Cortana also allows you to connect to third-party services for additional personalized experiences based upon information you shared with the third-party service. For example, choosing to sign into Facebook within Cortana allows Microsoft to access certain Facebook information so that Cortana and Bing can give you more personalized recommendations.

Browsing history. If you choose to send your full browsing history to Microsoft in Microsoft Edge (see the Microsoft Edge description in the Windows section of this statement), Cortana can provide suggestions based on the sites you visit in Microsoft Edge. Cortana won't collect information about sites you visit in InPrivate tabs.

Search history. Your Bing search queries - even if Cortana does the searching for you - are treated like any other Bing search queries and are used as described in the Bing section."

And this is what Edge uploads...

"Microsoft Edge is Microsoft's new web browser for Windows 10. Internet Explorer, Microsoft's legacy browser, is also available in Windows 10. Whenever you use a web browser to access the Internet, data about your device ("standard device data") is sent to the websites you visit and online services you use. Standard device data includes your device's IP address, browser type and language, access times, and referring website addresses. This data might be logged on those websites' web servers. Which data is logged and how that data is used depends on the privacy practices of the websites you visit and web services you use.

Additionally, data about how you use your browser, such as your browsing history, web form data, temporary Internet files, and cookies, is stored on your device You can delete this data from your device using Delete Browsing History.

New features in Microsoft Edge allow you to capture and save content on your device, such as:

Web Note: which allows you to create ink and text annotations on the web pages you visit, and clip, save or share them;

Active Reading: which allows you to create and manage reading lists including websites or documents; and

Hub: which allows you to easily manage your reading lists, favorites, downloads, and history all in one area.

Some Microsoft browser information saved on your device will be synced across other devices when you sign in with your Microsoft account. This information can include your browsing history, favorites, saved website passwords, and reading list. For example, in Microsoft Edge, if you sync your reading list across devices, copies of the content you choose to save to your reading list will be sent to each synced device for later viewing. You can control which information is synced (see Sync Settings). You can also disable syncing of Microsoft Edge browser information by turning off the sync option in Microsoft Edge Settings.

Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer use your search queries and browsing history to provide you with faster browsing and more relevant search results. These features include:

AutoSearch and Search Suggestions in Internet Explorer automatically sends the information you type into the browser address bar to your default search provider (such as Bing) and offer search recommendations as you type each character. In Microsoft Edge, this feature automatically sends this information to Bing even if you have selected another default search provider.

Page Prediction sends your browsing history to Microsoft and uses aggregated browsing history data to predict which pages you are likely to browse to next and proactively loads those pages in the background for a faster browsing experience.

Suggested Sites recommends web contents that you might be interested in based on your search and browsing history.

Browsing data collected in connection with these features is used in the aggregate and you can turn off any of these features at any time. These features will not collect browsing history while you have InPrivate Browsing enabled.

In order to provide search results, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer send your search queries, standard device information, and location (if you have location enabled) to your default search provider. If Bing is your default search provider, we use this data as described in the Bing section of this privacy statement.

Cortana can assist you with your web browsing in Microsoft Edge. If enabled, Cortana will collect your search queries and full browsing history, associated with a user ID. Cortana and related Microsoft services will use this data to learn about you and provide you with timely and intelligent answers and proactive personalized suggestions, or to complete web tasks for you. You can disable Cortana for Microsoft Edge web browsing at any time in Microsoft Edge Settings. To learn more about how Cortana uses data and how you can control that, go to the Cortana section of this privacy statement."

By the way, Cortana and Edge an excuse for uploading just a small part of your personal data to MS, there are far more... E.g. Bitlocker's recovery key also gets uploaded to the mothership.

Microsoft Privacy Statement

Edge out rivals? No! Firefox boss BLASTS Microsoft's Windows 10 browser brouhaha

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: And when you've find your browser has changed...

It doesn't any more, Windows 10 pops up a dialog which requires you to tell it which browser should be the default. Your initial two choices are clicking on the Edge icon to get a list of non-Edge browsers (WTF?) and 'Reset to the Microsoft recommended defaults' (Edge)...

https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/07/29/firefox-for-windows-10-how-to-restore-or-choose-firefox-as-your-default-browser/

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: No sign of it here yet

You can download the ISO from MS' website right now if you really must...

http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/software-download/windows10ISO

Dan 55 Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Microsoft's nature won't be denied.

It seems, if you also read the blog entry, that MS have also changed the API so it's more difficult for other browsers to set themselves as the default browser...

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: You know what

Perhaps if you use the Express install it depends if you are inside or outside the EU before deciding to change your browser?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: @FF22 - In other words...

If you do give Firefox permission to upload data you are reminded with a popup bar while using it, if you click it you get taken to the Data Choices page in settings.

Dan 55 Silver badge

After upgrading the OS on a Mac your browser choice stays the same. You get badgered to change until you disable the system-wide Default Browser Plug-in in Firefox so they're pushing it a bit but they don't cross the line like MS does (Express install means change default browser then upload to mother ship).

Microsoft's Windows 10 Torrent-U-Like updates GULP DOWN your precious bandwidth

Dan 55 Silver badge
Happy

Look on the bright side

BT are going to be forced to up their monthly bandwidth limit because Mrs. Miggins has no idea what a metered connection is or how to turn off torrenting in Windows Update, but she does know how to ring Watchdog.

Think beyond the Beeb: Gov consultation is crucial for free telly

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: The simplest solution would be abolish license fee monopoly

If the licence fee were found to be a breach of human rights, that's a whole continent which have to find another way of financing public television.

So it would have to be rolled into general taxation. Would that make those vocal people who have Sky, are completely happy with Sky, only watch Sky, and never watch anything but Sky happy?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Nobbling Freeview with nowhere for the broadcasters to go would be a remarkable lack of foresight, this is not The Netherlands (cable) or Germany (satellite). If the BBC and by extension everyone else is to go broadband then all ISPs would need plumbing to be paid for by someone to put Freeview on multicast, probably something done at Openreach, and get all home routers reconfigured/replaced. It would cost millions.

So why would this be a benefit? You're replacing one universally accessible digital platform which works with a whole new platform to get the same thing and viewers would have to pay a broadband subscription on top of a licence fee.

There is pressure from the EU to free TV frequencies as other countries don't have as much terrestrial TV and it goes well with the Tories who want to downsize the BBC.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Trollface

"Viewers would be staring at swimming hippos"

And it would still beat ITV or Channel 5.

Buffoon in 999 call: 'Cat ate my bacon and I want to press charges'

Dan 55 Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: Seeking Contestants To Join In The Fun!

They can't go after everyone but they should put all entries in a tombola and pick a winner once a year, the winner gets a prize of being charged with wasting police time. That'll bring down nuisance calls.

UK.gov wants to stop teenagers looking at tits online. No, really

Dan 55 Silver badge

Just tell them to use Facebook or Google+ to age verify the user

That'll keep them quiet for couple of years.

'Fix these Windows 10 Horrors': Readers turn their guns on Redmond

Dan 55 Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Completetly Pointless

I find your posting history to be remarkably short and monothematic.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Welcome to New Windows.

So MS saying that phoning home would only be in the beta version is an outrageous lie.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Joke

"Sit back and relax. Everything is fine. The screen is meant to be blue. STOP 0x0000007B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE)."

Dan 55 Silver badge

They're going to have the same problem with Windows 10, only worse. In an always-updating OS, what's the excuse for not updating it with new features five years from now? But who's going to pay for those updates when everybody's already got Windows 10?

Wanted: beta testers for El Reg’s Android app

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: you do need a G+ account

We're all grown ups here and we know what that means, don't we?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: you do need a G+ account

It's not as if we don't have an El Reg login, why can't a request to join the alpha (very cutting edge) and link to the apk be put on one of the profile pages?

Dan 55 Silver badge
Meh

Re: this isn't for the likes of you

Mobile doesn't show icons, doesn't let you put an icon on your post, and doesn't let you edit...

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Why?

LocalStorage!

MORE Windows 10 bugs! Too many Start menu apps BREAK it

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: @JP19 -- I have 600

No, it's not that. Having more than 512 entries also borks searching from the start menu.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: I have 600

Not sure about the latest versions but Office and Visual Studio have written a shitload of entries in their time.

I initially thought the article meant TIFKAM apps only, in which case the array could be a fixed size which only covers the initial app count for all I care because I'm not installing any other app on it. When I finally am forced to use it.

Let's all binge on Blake’s 7 and help save the BBC ... from itself

Dan 55 Silver badge
WTF?

"Or are you actually able to save yourselves?”

Next someone will say the Tories are dismantling the BBC out of tough love.

Windows 10: A sysadmin speaks his brains – and says MEH

Dan 55 Silver badge
FAIL

SHA-2 was added to Windows 7 autumn last year.

Windows 10: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE to Microsoft's long apology for Windows 8

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Where's the sizzle?

No, there was one about the tablet version which still wasn't ready.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Shit shit shit

And if you did it probably came back. The fuckers are playing dirty.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Where's the sizzle?

And presumably this is a review of the same version that a couple of days ago was declared "not ready".

Voyager's Golden Record now free to download

Dan 55 Silver badge
Trollface

Re: @JeffyPoooh

That's not the question. The questions are does Voyager have rights for each area of deep space it passes through, is there a reliable way of generating audience figures that a fair fee for radio broadcasts can be determined, and finally can pressure be bought to bear on the Kuiper Belt so they set up a collection agency or should they be put on the "they do not respect our intellectual property" shitlist?