Posts by Alan_Peery

What to do once your Surface Hub v1 becomes an 84-inch, $22K paperweight

Linux drivers?

It's running Win10, so X64 compatible. Seems that some driver work would get it working under Linux...

Thunderbird is go: 128 now out with revamped 'Nebula' UI

Which data file?

Re: Do you still need

The clues given by appropriately wide scrollbars are anything but redundant. They give a visual indication of how far you are through the content, something your "just use a scrollwheel" completely ignores.

As Chromecast outage drags on, fix could be days to weeks away

Re: Newer ChromeCast

The newer Chromecast devices are HDMI rather than audio, so you'd need to split the audio channel out or have a speaker device that accepts HDMI.

Bluetooth + Chromecast a bigger win

I really prefer streaming my music to my speakers with Chromecast because that's a separate channel to Bluetooth. I can leave the Chromecast device quietly streaming music when I join a Teams call from my Android tablet using a Bluetooth headset.

Windows now has a native ability to send send separate audio streams different places, BT+Chromecast is a useful half-step...

Xi know what you did last summer: China was all up in Republicans' email, says book

Re: @Wang Cores

The misinformation you mentioned? Quite a lot, given that it's shared by the same people, and often invented by them.

LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab

Re: All you need

Outlook also copies your non-cloud email into the cloud.

Dropbox to shed another 500 staff, CEO takes 'full responsibility'

They can keep the work device, but what about the data cleanse?

Sure, the company doesn't need the devices and maybe the employees can use them. Seems good.

Until you remember that these same devices had access to corporate data, and for people who had been doing more detailed troubleshooting maybe even some customer data. What is Dropbox doing to make sure that these devices are wiped properly before they are wandering free in the world, no longer secured and patched by the corporate toolset?

Datacenter CEO faked top-tier IT reliability cert to snag $10.7M SEC deal, DoJ claims

Elevators large enough to take the equipment to upper floors...

Rack of the right dimensions to fit your preferred supplier, and all the other suppliers...

Re: Genius

"Oh, it will be OK. We'll fix it al up after the contract signing."

"What do you mean I can't have my bonus if we do the necessary upgrade? I worked really hard to land that sale..."

Kyndryl follows in IBM's footsteps with rolling layoffs likely affecting thousands

Re: Quit Proactively

The constraint of multi-year contracts signed before the cloud services gained full function plays a big part.

About that Windows Installer 'make me admin' security hole. Here's how it's exploited

Re: msiscan in github

The point of Python being an additional attack service is true regardless of the need to read and verify *either* script.

Microsoft decides it's a good time for bad UI to die

Yes, Settings is missing bits

Like the ability to forget a WiFi Network you connected to previously, but are no longer around.

(Or at least that was missing, maybe it's been added.)

Palo Alto Networks execs apologize for 'hostesses' dressed as lamps at Black Hat booth

It wouldn't have been the same sexualization -- because it would be lacking the depersonalization from the lampshades.

Not really keen on either approach, but the lampshades clearly made it worse.

Texas sues GM for selling driver data to analytics, insurance companies

Returning profits of data theft not enought

It seems to me that calls for a significant penalty multiple. I'd suggest 20x, in symmetry with the school speed limit and GM's lack of basic knowledge they should have gained in grade school.

UK minister recalls two planning decisions which blocked datacenter investment

Failure to consider uses of waste heat

One big frustration I have with the planning around data centres is that sensible use of the waste heat isn't a requirement. A DC using 96 MW could heat a neighborhood, or can a lot of food with some heat pump concentration to get up to the required temps.

Latest Ghostscript vulnerability haunts experts as the next big breach enabler

Re: It's either open a file or click a link

So you think clicking on links is stupid?

Saying "just don't visit dodgy sites isn't an answer, as legitimate sites can be compromised.

Microsoft tells yet more customers their emails have been stolen

Re: They're Welcome

Including the password reset messages?

Atos's UK auditor raises 'material uncertainty' about future

Re: Complete nonsense

I wonder how much of the problem can be properly attributed to the major rise in power costs following the Russian invasion and spike in natural gas costs. I suspect quite a lot.

Raspberry Pi stock surges after London IPO

Re: Downvoters please check the definition of "fiduciary duty"

https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2024/06/11/raspberry_pi_stock_surges_after/#c_4877640

Musk moves Tesla's goalposts, investors happily move shares higher

Re: My Bullshit Meter Just Exploded

Very wrong. Take a look at everything launched post 2000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Solar_System_probes

Microsoft drags Windows Subsystem for Android into the trash

Re: Time for an Emulator?

IIRC the Android development tools from Google used to include something.

Re: There goes......

You are somehow immune to Microsoft telemetry?

VMware takes a swing at Nutanix, Red Hat with KVM conversion tool

Re: Meeeh....

"Put" was the verb chosen for a reason. If your wife has *chosen* to be in the kitchen rather than being there by force or by a purposeful lack of options it's a different situation.

How is this problem mine, techie asked, while cleaning underground computer

Re: Oil secrets - disinformation proven

To the downvoters:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/18/the-forgotten-oil-ads-that-told-us-climate-change-was-nothing

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/09/politics/big-oil-disinformation-record-profits-climate/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/oil-industry-documents-disinformation.html

It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

Re: I can see two cases here

The phone or the PC is the primary device on which the message is created. The car is only acting as a relay, and would not normally be expected to retain a copy of the message.

It's also an additional possible point of IT vulnerability.

It took seven years but over-40s fired by HP win $18m settlement

Not nearly enough, before and particularly after the lawyers fees

IANAL, pretty obviously.

Kyndryl bags short-lived HMRC mainframe contract

Re: Why the cloud ?

The workload is not as stable as youi might think. Consider even just the changes to your personal taxation over the last 5 years.

Bizarre backup taught techie to dumb things down for the boss

Re: "you have to wonder how they get home each night

There are theoretically schedules for London's tube lines, but to expect adherence to them at a fidelity close enough to matter is unusual. Was the person Swiss?

Re: I need my Trash

Years ago I was bitten by the discovery that HPUX *didn't* clear /tmp at each reboot. :-D Can't remember now what exact failure that triggered in my homebrew sort-of-Ansible...

Modest Apple talks up these 'incredible' advances in iOS

Re: Respond in your own voice?!

It sounds very useful for an assistive device.

It also sounds incredibly useful for social engineering attacks.

Three quarters of UK tech pros are ready to leave their jobs

Re: "Salary will always be key to any tech job seeker"

Another option is buying more holiday if your employer offers the option. I've done so and looking forward to extra holidays this year.

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

Stripe notification

Was it just me that missed the notification from my card companies that this "sticky access" trick was being implemented? It is a big and probably sensible change, but I don't remember being informed.

Windows 11 still not winning the OS popularity contest

Missing Intel NUC support

When they support my Intel NUC on Windows 11, I'll upgrade it to Windows 11.

Go ahead, be rude. You don't know it now, but it will cost you $350,000

Re: You get what you order

Put it on speakerphone, and record the conversation with the other phone.

Meta met a programming language it likes better than Java

Other major users of Kotlin?

OK, so Metafacebook has jumped in at the deep end -- who else has done so?

IBM withholds healthcare subsidies from some retirees

But IBM seems to take an unusual amount of pleasure in attacking its retirees.

Here's how 5 mobile banking apps put 300,000 users' digital fingerprints at risk

Re: It's Not As If Banking Is Risky Enough Already

"mobile phone A/C data" -> mobile phone account data probably. Telephone number, name, and address I would guess.

IBM ordered to pay $1.6b to BMC

Re: Not commenting on the business practices

If the "please rip this BMC crap out and replace it with less costly IBM" had originated from AT&T, then IBM would have presented that as evidence. Since the judge found against them, they must not have had that evidence.

Start your engines: Windows 11 ready for broad deployment

Re: as you can't do that anymore.

There are times when the menu is abbreviated, and the "new -> " functions are hidden under a "Show More Options" layer in the menu.

Jeffrey Snover claims Microsoft demoted him for inventing PowerShell

Re: powershell command missing

That lists each subdirectory, but doesn't total the size of each of those directories properly. I suspect it's giving the full disk usage of c:\some\folder because the totals are the same for each child directory.

cd I know it's behaving in your example, but here's my output:

PS C:\Users> Get-ChildItem C:\Users | ForEach-Object { Echo $_.Name ; Get-ChildItem -Recurse . | measure-object -property Length -sum }

apeery

Count : 1946

Average :

Sum : 38742310694

Maximum :

Minimum :

Property : Length

defaultuser0

Count : 1946

Average :

Sum : 38742310694

Maximum :

Minimum :

Property : Length

fred

Count : 1946

Average :

Sum : 38742310694

Maximum :

Minimum :

Property : Length

Public

Count : 1946

Average :

Sum : 38742310694

Maximum :

Minimum :

Property : Length

Directory: C:\Users

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

d----- 08/02/2022 09:46 apeery

d----- 04/05/2021 16:15 defaultuser0

d----- 03/05/2022 12:56 fred

d-r--- 06/05/2021 00:04 Public

HMRC: UK techies' IR35 tax appeals could take years

Re: Same tax as everyone else?

Sometimes, not always. Very often before IR35 rolled around contractors were employees -- of their own limited company. This limited company took the risk of gaps in employment, paid for training, etc.

Re: Dumb question...

And remember, the Inland Revenue may tell you that "you don't have to file self assessment", and fail to mention that if you're a higher rate tax payer it's how you reclaim the additional 20% credit on any pension contributions you do outside of payroll. Or the additional amount you could save on tax due to charity contributions.

They'd rather keep that money, evidently.

Experimental WebAssembly port of LibreOffice released

Just-In-Time compilation of Java code to native opcodes has been around for a long time -- first mentioned in 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_compilation#History

Apple tweaks AirTags to be less useful for stalkers, thieves

Re: What the hell ?

The description was missing the "and the iPhone of the person owning the tag hasn't been near the AirTag in question".

Crack team of boffins hash out how e-scooters should sound – but they need your help*

I think there's a second classification of e-bike that allows higher speeds, so long as the rider is licensed for motorcycles and wearing a helmet.

Re: It rings a bell

Luddite laws ban them on the streets specifically.

They can we recycled according the WEE, like any other electronic device.

And luddite laws once forced people to walk in front of cars waving a flag.

Stupid laws should be overturned.

Games Workshop has chucked another £500k at entrenched ERP project with no end to epic battle in sight

Re: job ads

What is this bargepole you speak of? We all know that the proper tool is a a 10 foot pole!