* Posts by Steve Davies 3

7136 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

The cloud ain't making it rain for Intel right now: Tech giants pause server chip sales

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Data estimates

are it will throw off about 40GB a minute of data

How much data does an F1 race car generate? How much is actually kept?

That might help get a more accurate figure.

Do we ned to keep every reading of say the tye pressure sensors when we really only need a snapshot when someding goes outside pre-defined limits.

There are obvious 'dataholics' in charge of the people who come up with these guestimates. Perhaps they need to be chopped off at the head first?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Others have to take some of the blame as well

When MS and Oracle start charging per core rather than per CPU and increasing the prices a lot, there is suddenly less incentive to replace a Xeon V3 with a XEON V5 system.

Raving mad: Glow sticks are secret weapon in Facebook's 2.1Gbps laser internet drones

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Er no

And where there's advertising, there's profit.

And where there's advertising, there's a target to be shot down

There fixed it for you.

BT customers hit by broadband outage ... again

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Non specific point

The words

Frying Pan

and

Fire

come to mind.

If you do go back, just don't come back here and complain when it goes badly.

Firefox to banish hidden Flash files – and kill off sneaky ad snoopers

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Re BBC

I just checked BBC News with FF 45.2.0 ESR and it still demands Flash to play anything

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

the BBC is a Pain in the Ass

for insisting that it needs flash to be installed.

My MBP has never had that abomination called Flash installed and still I get sites that can't even show the home page because it is all written in Flash.

Those sites I blacklist but it is hard to see why the BBC can't simply move everyone over to the mobile site and be done with it. After all iOS has never had flash (and whatever you think of Steve Jobs, this was a smart decision ) and it shows the BBC pages perfectly well.

How's this for irony? US Navy hit with $600m software piracy claim

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Just had a thought

Nah, they go to

E(quipment)Bay

Question: What's missing in Microsoft's data science professional degree?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

MS training for MS

why are people surprised?

They probably think that the world (and the WWW) runs on Microsoft (IIS + SQLServer) platforms and nothing else is worth looking at.

Microsoft tweaks TCP stack in Windows Server and Windows 10

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Deep Joy

MS releases even more beta software onto the unsuspecting users.

Are these changes being driven by the need to slurp even more data in ways that you can't stop?

Shock: Apple patents the phone book

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Joke

The mind boggles

at the thought of the antenna adjusting itself to the users rapid up/down hand movements when viewing PRON.

Gives new meaning to the words 'Simple Harmonic Motion'

Microsoft Azure doubles up to $800m a quarter – and is wiped out by dying phone sales

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

The writing should be on the wall

for their Phone business. That drop in revenue would have sent any other companies share price tumbling yet the MS price rose. But just the size of the revenue drop would make any other business pull the plug but will MS do that? I doubt it and it will continue to be the anchor that is holding them back for sometime to come. Shame really as we need three strong players in the mobile business.

I guess the 'love in' that MS has with Wall St is carrying on as normal.

We shall have to see what happens to APPL stock when they release their next set of figures. (My guess is that the stock will tank by at least 10% but that is just my feeling)

Drone bloke cuffed after gizmo stops firemen tackling forest inferno

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Sounds like nonsense to me

These pesky drones might be small but one could easily break off your Airspeed Indicator sensor.

Fuck flying in that sort of environment with a U/S ASI. Not a problem in normal conditions but in that sort of air conditions????

If I was one of the pilots, I'd want to lynch that drone operator. Failing that send him on a road gang for 5 years.

UK 'emergency' bulk data slurp permissible in pursuit of 'serious crime'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Starting To Make Sense

The biggest thorn in the gubbermint path toward total slurping is the ECHR.

This is nothing to do with the EU. taking the UK out of the ECHR laws would be a very wrong move IMHO.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Exactly what defines 'serious crime'?

I'll wager that it will include dropping litter within the year.

just another example of gubbermint scope creep in action.

MPs tell BT: Lay more fibre or face split with Openreach

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Get the facts right

While I think that OpenReach (And BT in general) need a kicking , Openreach do have other things to invest in other than just superfast broadband. They do have the rest of the Telephone network to maintain and upgrade. The likes of Talk-talk and Sky are only too willing to piggback on the work that OR do.

IF they'd stump up a decent wad of cash I'm sure that BT would be only too glad to spend it.

Openread do need to sort of inner city Broadband. The business that is a minutes walk from Oxford Circus that can't get more than 1Mb upload is just as deprived as the people out in the shires.

If managing PCs is still hard, good luck patching 100,000 internet things

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
FAIL

The IOT Support model is already there

Just look at the plethora of unpathed Android phones that out there. Buy a cheapo (and even not so cheap) device and pray that it gets at least one update and that the maker will provide OS upgrades (are you having a larf?)

So the basic premise of IOT is

- Ship, ship and to hell with security

- It's cheap so are you really expecting patches? And for free? Get real

- Buyer beware (sadly it is being flogged as a solution for an as yet question)

See Icon for my opinon of IOT.

As a result, I will not be partaking in this madness. ergo, my Fridge will never be conneted to anything other that the 230V S supply.

For $800 you can buy internet engineers' answer to US government spying

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Well...

The units will be shipped in September. At the time of writing, just two had been sold.

Would those customer be the NSA and GCHQ by any chance?

That leads me to ask, how many have been sold on the 'dark web'?

Facebook and Google show how the world really will be blanketed in 5G

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Oh gooddy. Even easier for Google to track you

Terragraph will make heavy use of WiGig, the Wi-Fi-like network for 60 GHz spectrum, and the nodes, which can be mounted on lamp posts or buildings, will use low cost chips and components, said Facebook.

Now they can track you and send you targetted adverts even more than before.

Because the cells are so small then Zuck, google and their mates will soon be able to track your every step even inside your home.

And we want this because?

Softbank promises stronger ARM: Greater overseas reach and double the UK jobs

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I expect Imagination is feeling rather unwanted

Perhaps with the fall in the £ vs $ rate, it might temp Apple to buy them up

Cue much gnashing of teeth by the apple haters but this is business.

Anything of value here is now even more attractive post BREXIT for any overseas investor with the money (or even without it...)

Brit chip biz ARM legs it to Softbank for $32bn

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: How much?

Well spotted.

If you have a big cash pile (And aren't called Apple) then you are a target for the commercial raiders.

All you need to do is get a short term loan to cover the amount of cash your target has in the bank and fund the rest and away you go.

We have seen this many times over the years. Here ARM's own cash pile is being used as a weapon to take them over.

I wonder what the MBA wizzards/idiots think about that?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Intel to put in a counter offer?

Why would they?

They'd be up to their necks in Monopoly investigations in an instant.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Oh but the premium

According to the reports I read, this is a CASH purchase. Where's the debt?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Oh but the premium

will really make people sit up and take notice.

The Premium is the price you pay that is in excess of the quoted share price.

IMHO, this is just a silly amount. The board when seeing it must have had a collective heart attack.

Why would Softbank risk this large amount of money in an area of business that they have no experience?

I get the distinct impression that someone else is behind this.

Samsung spills beans on mystery username, password emails to devs

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Is there some magic difference between.....

Developing apps for Samsung Android and other (possibly) inferior Androids?

If not then what is so special about the Samsung developer program? Do they give you a free Galaxy Edge?

It would be nice to know.

Windows 10 a failure by Microsoft's own metric – it won't hit one billion devices by mid-2018

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I'd add

And how does the average user who was formerly a windows user know how to do that then?

Those of us who know and are advocated for Linux know that but the average user would have no clue at all about how to even start to go about this.

This is made even more tricky by the use of LVM by many Linux Distros in their default installation.

I'd love to see a replication of the approach Apple takes with Time Machine applied to Linux.

start installing a new Linux system with the back connected and the distro sees the backup and does the job of restoring the user/users for you with minimal work on the users part.

McCain: Come to my encryption hearing. Tim Cook: No, I'm good. McCain: I hate you, I hate you, I hate you

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: In the same era as Snowden exposed widespread NSA abuse...

Who elected them?

Money, big money.

That ensured that only candidates that have been bought and paid for appear on the ballot papers.

The electorate then have a clear choice between

a candidate that owes their political allegance to one group of crooks

OR

a candidate that owes their .... another bunch of mobsters.

You get the best paid for candidate.

US Democracy at its best.

It is time that the US System was overhauled from top to bottom otherwise this will just keep on going on. Limiting the amount of money that candidates can spend (including their so called 'friends') would be a good start.

Empty your free 30GB OneDrive space today – before Microsoft deletes your files for you

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Dual Servers

Which is why the example posted above uses TWO NAS Devices.

I have this sort of thing already setup. One NAS is in my Garage. The second is in my 'Man Cave' (Aka Garden Shed) that is 120 ft away. Both are powered by PV cells.

Ad blockers responsible for rise in upfront TV ad sales, claims report

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.

My modus operandi regarding TV or Internet ads is

If I see an advert for product X, then when I want to but something in that product category, Product X is removed from the list of possible suppliers.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Easy way to avoid TV ads

re BBC

You have already paid for the content so it is not as if they are trying to get more dosh out of you (Box sets excepted)

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: So it's time...

Easy. Just record everything on your PVR and use skip.

Can't remember the last time I saw a complete Ad-break on TV.

Mind you, I don't watch a lot of TV and even less from the chanels that have ads.

No, I don't want to buy a new car let alone sell my current one for 20% inder market value

No, I don't want a free parker pen or vastly overprices of 50's life cover.

No, I don't want to make a PPI claim.

No, I don't want a supposedly waterproof phone that is a security nightmare

etc

etc

Yours a decidely grumpy old man.

If we can't find a working SCSI cable, the company will close tomorrow

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Full marks for extra experience!

Sadly the people with this sort of experience are getting rather long in the tooth these days. I'm retiring later this year.

Youngsters marvel at you as you fix a dodgy Cat-5 cable connector by cutting off the old one and applying a new one with your trusty crimp tool.

I did this at one company. The IT Director said that they'd received a quote of £1500 to relay the whole effing cable. All I did was replace the connector and test the cable using my Ethernet tester. With the cable checking out, I plugged it back in and the archiving could be done.

Got a 12-bottle case of Verve for my 30 minutes of work (the company was a wine merchants).

It might be worth getting a list of what bits of kit people carry with them 'just in case' and what bits have saved the day more than once.

Boris Johnson 'NIGHTMARE'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Awww.

It will be interesting to see if he falls on said knife when he fails to get even a half decent deal from Europe.

This will make or break his political career.

the phrase 'keeping your enemies closer' comes to mind.

So far the new PM has done a good job with her appointments.

Only time will tell us if she is just a one trick pony and just as crap at being PM as Gordo was.

Google quietly takes gag off Mississippi AG after wrecking ads probe

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

This says it all

"In my 10 years as attorney general, I have dealt with a lot of large corporate wrongdoers. I must say that yours is the first I have encountered to have no corporate conscience for the safety of its customers, the viability of its fellow corporations, or the negative economic impact on the nation which has allowed your company to flourish," Hood said in 2014.

He is of course referring to Google.

Naturally, the Google Fanbois will be out to defend them but to issue a restraining order on an State Law Officer is to my mind, beyond the pale.

You really do want to use biometrics for payments, beam banks

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: new Visa-sponsored survey

Purveyor of Biometrics conducts survery and concludes that customers want to use their products.

Quel Surprise.

What a load of old bollocks.

And No I don't want biometrics. Visa can go finger themselves for all I care.

Shocker: Computer science graduate wins a top UK political job

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Getting a degree in PPE should

automatically disqualify you from even standing for election as an MP for 25 years after graduation. Perhaps the intervening years might enable the PPE grads to get even a cursory understading of the real world. viz, get a real fucking job like the rest of us plebs.

Salesforce bins all Android phones bar Nexii and Galaxies

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

So the only 'true' Android is a Samsung one?

I expect the people at the Chocolate Factory are not amused by this one little bit.

So how much did [redacted] pay [redacted] in order to get this exclusivity then?

The question has to be asked even if the answer is zero.

Trainline.com dumps Oracle and Microsoft, gulps AWS Kool-Aid

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Basicss first would be good

some words from

http://www.seat61.com/

independent ticket retailers usually add a booking fee... There are various independent retailers including www.trainline.com, www.raileasy.com, www.loco2.com, www.mytrainticket.co.uk, www.redspottedhanky.com, www.takethetrain.co.uk & www.quno.com. There's no need to check them all as they all sell exactly the same tickets at exactly the same prices from exactly the same National Rail fares database used by the train operators' websites. However, all these third-party retailers except www.loco2.com charge a small booking fee on top of the ticket price. For example www.trainline.com charges a 25p to £1.50 booking fee plus a 2% credit card fee, www.raileasy.com charges around £1 for debit cards or £2.61 for credit cards. If you buy from a train company website such as www.virgintrains.co.uk you don't pay any booking fee or credit or debit card fee. Same prices, same tickets, in fact the Virgin Trains website is powered by Trainline's own system, just with Virgin branding instead of Trainline branding and without Trainline's own booking fee & credit card fee!

Smartphones aren't tiny PCs, but that's how we use them in the West

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Paying for fuel

Using your phone on a filling station forecourt is actually ILLEGAL in the UK.

Sure, the law goes back to the days of Analogue phones but it is still illegal.

Windows Phone users beg Pokémon Go creators for attention

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Windows Phone?

and that same MS who has just annouced that the last bits of Nokia that they had in Finland are to close.

That's the EEE (with the last E being Extinguish) job wrt Nokia complete then.

Apple crumbles: Mac sales slump while Dell, HP Inc, Lenovo shift PCs

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

The Headline...

Is there solely to get page hits and thus revenue for the site. It is not that uncommon for headlines to slag off <insert target here> and when you get into the text, it is just a little jab and not the uppercut that the title teases us with.

Samsung deals out microSD-crushing faster fingernail flash cards

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Who's adopting it then?

This got me smiling

Sammy says these improvements reduce ”multimedia data downloading time, photo thumbnail loading time and buffer clearing time in burst shooting mode, which, collectively, can be particularly beneficial to DSLR camera users.”

Unless your DSLR has the software to use UFS and the right Hardware in it that can handle the speed ir will give to SFA in improved write speed.

Most DSLR's (i.e. apart from the ones the Pro's use) can't :-

1) Handle UFS

2) Have the Hardware to even write SD cards at 90Mb/sec.

3) Some Pro DSLR's already use a high speed storage medium eg, XQD on the D4S/D5

At the moment, I don't see the likes of Nikon or Canon adopting this storage device. Maybe in a year or two but in any event YOU will have to buy a new camera body.

Cycling paramedics in epic rush to save patient who ate stale sandwich

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
FAIL

May you never get old

and frail and have a fall. Then lie in the cold for 24Hours and be unwilling to call 999 in case you get fined more than a months Pension.

Sure some 999 calls are totally stupid and the people making them should be put in the stocks for a week but when you get old or infirm then calling 999 is all there is between you and death.

White hat banned for revealing vulns in news sites used by London councillors

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Quick - copy them

before they get (cough-cough) updated.

Then the court can be shown the total stupidity of the Admins and that really it should be them in the dock for having the nerve to take real money to run this shite.

Galaxy S7 Active can't swim, claims site. But it can, vendor retorts

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

It all comes down to who you believe

The manufacturer who wanted to embiggen their products[1]

OR

The 3rd party testers who find the problems

Your choice but in the meantime you'd better keep those S7's dry.

[1] Are Samsung actually selling lots of these? Why else would you be able to get a free tablet with a phone on some US Cellular contracts?

Pints on a plane!

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Proper Beer does not need CO2

But as most lager is tastelss anyway the change in taste you get at altitude won't matter a jot.

How long will it be before a plane is diverted because the beer has run out?

Glad I don't fly KLM apart from puddle jumpers.

Linux 4.7 delayed

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Lets Hope...

That Linus is not travelling on 'Southern' here in the UK. He might be even later with the next release.

Facebook offers end-to-end encrypted chat – if you find the right setting

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Very True

to me, the important thing is what they do with that data.

do they use it internally

OR

do they flog it to just about anyone who wants it?

Rolls-Royce reckons robot cargo ships are the future of the seas

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: System used?

Nah, they bring back VME

Virtual

Maritime

Environment

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Internet of Ships

How would they stop the bad guys arriving by Helicopter?

Crooks are pretty adaptive.

If they can board it what is to stop them from sending a few salvoes of RPG's into it and sinking the ship.

What price shipping Insurance then eh?

Win 10 Anniversary: 'We're beginning to check in final code' says Microsoft

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
FAIL

Checking in the final code?

Well Whooppeeeeee do.

What do youy want me to do about it eh?

Do you want me to run naked round my town in celbration?

honestly and seriously, who the hell cares.

Checking in code is done all the time. I commited a lot earlier today. Nothing to celbrate about at all.

Now if you released some software and said 'go break it, tell us about the problems and we'll fix them' I know a lot more people would be interested.

Just checking in code is so 'Meh'. Real devs do it all the time

Sheesh.