* Posts by Phil 54

118 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Jun 2009

Page:

Share your 2024 tech forecasts (wrong answers only) to win a terrible sweater

Phil 54

SpaceX

Due to a spelling error by Elon Musk in an FAA filing, full ownership of SpaceX is transferred to the French farming cooperative that I currently work for, which then completes 6 fully successful Super Heavy launches within the following week.

Microsoft: You own the best software keyboard there is. Please let us buy it

Phil 54

You forgot the best part about Swype: cut, paste, and select all shortcuts

As anti-brutality protests fill streets of American cities, netizens cram police app with K-Pop, airwaves with NWA

Phil 54

Re: "Yes, Anon activists are back."

A private autopsy returned asphyxiation as the cause of death; the official autopsy returned cardiopulmonary arrest, which is a non-result, equivalent to saying that he died from no longer being alive.

Even the official autopsy retained neck compression as a primary factor leading to death.

So yeah, the police officer murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck until he was dead.

US customers kick up class-action stink over Epson's kyboshing of third-party ink

Phil 54

Do your research before buying a colour laser printer; my Lexmark uses the colour toner even when printing black and white images, and won't print in black-only if one of the colour cartridges is empty*.

*I eventually found the setting that disables this but only after buying a whole set of cartridges

What the cell...? Telcos around the world were so severely pwned, they didn't notice the hackers setting up VPN points

Phil 54

Re: "outside North America"

Why even bother pretending?

As far as I can tell, you don't even need a license to be a bounty hunter in most parts of the USA

Who cracked El Chapo's encrypted chats and brought down the Mexican drug kingpin? Er, his IT manager

Phil 54
Angel

Coming soon on "Who, Me?"

United States, you have 2 months to sort Privacy Shield ... or data deal is for the bin – Eurocrats

Phil 54

Re: We know what comes next...

"I have emailed my European ambassador to confirm that the block is working but strangely haven't yet received a reply"

GDPR forgive us, it's been one month since you were enforced…

Phil 54

Firefox reading view

I've found that when I can get around some blocks or incredibly annoying multi-click consent prompts by using the Firefox Reading mode. Using Google mobilizer on my Android rss reader works as well.

Tech firms, come to Blighty! Everything is brill! Brexit schmexit, Galileo schmalileo

Phil 54

And why on earth would the EU and USA sign tariff-free trade deals when you've essentially become a tax haven?

Max Schrems is back: Facebook, Google hit with GDPR complaint

Phil 54

Re: What a lovely day

And that breach reveals that she's part of Windrush? Or actually from an EU27 country?

Kentucky gov: Violent video games, not guns, to blame for Florida school massacre

Phil 54

Re: Violent games? But where were the parents?

Well, in this case they were dead.

Facial recognition software easily IDs white men, but error rates soar for black women

Phil 54

"Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Iceland, Finland, Sweden"

There seem to be a few areas of the world with relatively distinctive features missing...

I wouldn't call it representative if there are no or very few people from the Indian subcontinent or east Asia, not to mention South America.

First iPhone X fondlers struggle to admit that Face ID sort of sucks

Phil 54

Re: Less gimicks, more stability

I beg To differ....

The Mac Classic

Fines for crossing roads while TXTing enacted in Honolulu

Phil 54

It only applies to pedestrians crossing a road.

Drunk canoeing no longer driving offence in Canada

Phil 54

Re: Ignition locks?

My parents had a canoe with a ignition lock when I was a youngster, it was called a Pinto

Phil 54

sounds like a joke but...

I actually got a ticket for operating a vehicle on a federal waterway ( the Trent-Severn waterway) while drinking an alcoholic beverage.

2pm and 10ft from the dock, I was in the stern with beer in hand, hence the operating part, when a police boat showed up. The best part was that the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) officer asked for a piece of id; I was in a bathing suit.

Germans force Microsoft to scrap future pushy Windows 10 upgrades

Phil 54

"Optional"?

Good luck turning off updates on Windows 10!

Google's tax returns are trop petite says Hollande

Phil 54

Re: Pardon my French

Look in the address bar of your browser for an even better title.

Young model ruthlessly fingers upskirt iPad petshop pervert

Phil 54
Thumb Up

I'm looking forward to the second Reg article tagged with "cavalier king charles spaniel"!

Am I the only one who clicked the tag just to see?

Google+ architect: What was so great about Reader anyway?

Phil 54

Re: Here is why

"Of course, for google, seeing what everyones reading is an absolute goldmine for ad metrics so im not suprised they pulled this."

You think they don't see what everyone's reading on Reader?

All they've done is lost contact with those who like unadulterated RSS. We might be slightly fringe compared to most but that just means that we're more devoted to what we like. Reader users will move to another, non-Google, service, taking their data out of Google's ecosystem. They've shot themselves in the foot, methinks.

Phil 54

Re: Asking Too Late

Exactly!

I stay signed in to Google for one reason and one reason only: so that I can quickly go to Reader and read any new articles I'm interested in.

I get my emails on my phone and I don't give a rat's arse about personalized search, Google+, or any of the other "benefits" of staying signed in to Google. The end result to Google is that I will now sign out, clear cookies and stop feeding them data (or at least stop feeding them as much data).

SHIELD Act proposed to make patent trolls pay

Phil 54

Re: Trivial, watson, trivial

Still slightly better than the US situation as it is...

Now I'd like to see them extend the principle to ALL civil lawsuits!

EU-wide mega-Leveson 'needed' to silence Press, bloggers

Phil 54

Re: Regulate the media...

So The Guardian would be fined -£54,750,000?

Ever had to register to buy online - and been PELTED with SPAM?

Phil 54

Re: Who the fuck ...

"Who the fuck ...

... is daft enough to purchase anything online in the first place? Can't you find it within 20 miles of where you live? If not, why the hell do you think you need it?[1]"

Perhaps those who like to pay significantly less for things?

Phil 54

Same here...

I use exactly the same system. I get almost no spam on my professional or personal addresses and I check on the other ones once a week(ish) unless I've bought something. Forums are all set up to not contact me unless someone PMs me or if I've subscribed to a particular thread. My worst spam problems are mass reply-to-alls from friends, family or acquaintances.

Apple stops Caring in Italy, probably all Europe soon

Phil 54
Thumb Up

Re: Screw the EU

Dell Mini 10v, bought in Victoria, B.C., replaced free of charge in France two months after the warranty expired after one phone call and an email. Oh, and it was DHLed to my front door.

US county named 'area of outstanding natural stupidity'

Phil 54

Re: The last tale...

"..is yet another reason why firearms safety lessons should be compulsory in US schools"

Agreed, but wouldn't stricter gun control work better?

Phil 54

Re: Agreed

Link? Please? Link?

FolderSync

Phil 54

Tasker integration!

You missed the best thing.... Tasker integration, at least with the pro version.

Look back in Ascii: Computing in the 1980s

Phil 54

Re: Commodore PET

I was only 4 or 5 when my dad brought one home. It was brilliant.

Jedi light-sabre beats Taser in Oregon parking-lot fracas

Phil 54

Haha! I read the last line as ... interfering with a police officer's rap

Siri gets over her huff, returns useful as ever

Phil 54
Terminator

Eliza

on a Commodore PET

Google feeds patents to HTC for assault on Apple

Phil 54

Apology accepted

Although I doubt that patent reform will ever become an election issue

iOS, Mac, Android users still vulnerable to bogus certs

Phil 54
WTF?

Strange..

I wrote my two comments within a minute of each other but they showed up as having been posted more than 8 hours apart, and with the first comment last.

To reiterate: for android users use the CACertMan app available at guardianproject.info

Phil 54
Happy

For Android owners

There's an app to manage and delete certificates available at the guardianproject.info site. Obviously you have to be rooted to use it.

Phil 54
Meh

CACertMan

is what it's called

Sorry, I forgot to give the name...

Deezer launches stunningly original music idea in the UK

Phil 54

True,

I overly generalized. I should have said "Pretty much everyone I know uses it"

Not to replace every other option but certainly on a regular basis.

Phil 54
Thumb Up

Premium

Here in France pretty much everyone uses Deezer at home. It has a relatively good selection of artists and it's easier to let people use it at a party than to let them touch your vinyl, cds and/or mess about with your mp3s.

I have a Deezer Premium account that came free with my Orange mobile account. It allows offline listening, although you have to synchronize first and the files are encrypted on the hard drive. It wasn't at all a factor in the contract I chose but I have to admit that the android app gets used a lot; with a premium account you get unlimited mobile streaming.

US judge tells Levi's to take its Euro problems to Europe

Phil 54
FAIL

Nonsensical

"Do you have a simple Nokia brick phone that has great phone quality, but just has the basic features and isn't a smart phone?

Buy a 'white box' pc or off brand pc that nobody has heard about from Taiwan? What type of car do you drive? "

Your comment doesn't make any sense. You should have compared IDENTICAL items of IDENTICAL quality from different brands instead of comparing, say, a Nokia brick phone(just makes calls) and a smart phone(does a whole lot of other stuff AND makes calls).

* the comment about the car doesn't make much sense either

Q: Why do defenders keep losing to smaller cyberwarriors?

Phil 54

Good point, wrong example...

Total Coalition deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 : 2583

Total Taliban deaths in Afghanistan in 2010 : 5225

Total Taliban deaths in Afghanistan in 2009 : 4610

Total Taliban deaths in Afghanistan in 2008 : 3800 - 5000

etc etc

Source Wikipedia

Now if you start to include civilian deaths it changes a bit, but you still can't say that the Taliban is causing "mayhem at relatively low cost to a much bigger force of heavily armed soldiers. " unless you have a very broad definition of "low cost".

Based on the number of fatalities from both sides I would say they're pesky or maybe irritating, but I agree with your point, if not the example you used.

eBay shopping lands wild colonial in lock-up

Phil 54
Flame

Not just the 70s

We used to nick everything we needed to make black powder from school, although I seen to remember buying the ingredients from the pharmacy as well. My favorite was sugar and potassium nitrate mixed up and rolled in newspaper, made a wicked smoke bomb. Powdered magnesium and homemade thermite were fun too. That was in the 80s and early 90s, when it was considered more nerdy than terroristy. Oh look, a new word!

New Yorkers battle giant blindness-causing plants

Phil 54
Facepalm

Thank you very much...

now I've got the fricken theme song stuck in my head!

Aaataaack of the killer tomAAAtoes!!

Refusal to unveil scuppers French refusal-to-unveil trial

Phil 54

There has never been ...

a case where a woman wearing a burka refused to show her face when asked.

This NOT about hiding your identity, it IS about thinly veiled anti-Muslim sentiment in France.

It is also about the current government playing to the extreme right in a bid to stay in power next year.

****We need a Rumpole icon, I'd LOVE to see him defend someone accused of "unlawfully wearing an item of clothing".

Canada's internet future at stake in Monday election

Phil 54

Well at least...

..the Bloc got trounced.

Vote now for the best sci-fi film never made

Phil 54

Baroque Cycle

I really really loved it, but I really, really can't see it being a good movie

Communicate

Phil 54
Pint

What's the point?

Raising my voice more and more seems to work perfectly fine! Besides, we all know that everyone understands English, they're just taking the piss.

Japanese gov makes Fukushima evac zone compulsory

Phil 54

Dowsing?

Company witch?

No, iPhone location tracking isn't harmless and here's why

Phil 54
FAIL

Las Vegas

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as you can clearly see from the Iphone log, the accused WAS indeed present in Las Vegas the night of the murder, despite his farcical protestations that he has never been to Las Vegas.

AdBlock Plus man disputes Mozilla add-on tests

Phil 54

Preloader

I only shutdown my FF notebook once or twice a week, if that, but I close Firefox numerous times per day. I've been using Firefox Preloader for years now and it really makes a difference in FF start-up time. After updating to FF4 I had to play around with it a bit, because they seem to have changed where sessions are held. When I restarted FF it came up with the last pages viewed instead of my start page. I solved it by adding the "Exit" button from the Toolbar Buttons extensions(identical to the File>Exit menu) and the Hide Captions Titlebar Plus extension to hide the normal windows close button. The only problem is that I don't have a minimize button anymore, although I can just click on the taskbar button.

Page: