Posts by Craig 2

Wikimedia Foundation confirms, and bemoans, Pakistan ban

Re: The ban-hammer

"No, everyone can form their own opinions. Literally any opinion they can think of."

Oooh, I would love to see an academic paper discussing that... Given that your thoughts and opinions are formed from the summary experiences of your life and upbringing until that point, I really believe some people simply cannot see the flaws in their own opinions.* I mean, I really believe that what I'm writing now is based on logical, rational thought processes but who know what historical "corruption" lurks in my synapses...

* See the majority of the Russian general population for current examples...

Microsoft injects AI into Teams so no one will ever forget what the meeting decided

Re: Translation...

“I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle.”

(Arthur Dent)

Bringing cakes into the office is killing your colleagues, says UK food watchdog boss

Re: Innumeracy

Or, In medical terms overweight is a range rather than a boolean...

Microsoft and community release scripts to help mitigate Defender mess

Re: I'm still running Windows 7

Yep, if only it wasn't dumped for inane reasons (shiny, mobile, saas etc etc) we could all be leading happy, productive lives...

Uncle Sam OKs vaccine that protects honeybees against hive-destroying bacterium

"better to bodge a expensive workaround than solve the problems we created."

So, go back to having a global population a tiny fraction of what it is now? We're waaay too far down the road now to go back to Nature.

TikTok confirms it tracked journalists' locations as part of leak investigation

Re: Keeping your parts private

IP addresses are not private, but those with comprehension competence (aka reading the article) would know that using them to track individuals on a pervasive basis IS an invasion of privacy. Your physical location isn't really private, but following a specific person around 24hrs a day is also an invasion of privacy.

US Air Force reveals B-21 Raider stealth bomber that'll fly the unfriendly skies

Re: Eye-watering

"equipment that may never be used for its intended purpose"

I suggest you look up the definition of the word `deterrent`.

"never enough money for Social Security, housing, healthcare"

Recently a few European countries are increasing their defense spending and one which is probably regretting not spending more... There's no point having a utopian society if anyone can come and smash it down.

Google cut contractors off from online 'Share My Salary' spreadsheet, union claims

They should have created it in Office 365, at least it would be available 365 days...err most of the time...

Russia says Starlink satellites could become military targets

Shoot down just 1 US satellite and see what happens... I dare you... I double-dare you motherfucker...

I'm sure Russia knows that too and this is just more empty posturing for their domestic audience.

China chip imports down 12.4% as tech trade war with US intensifies

Re: Withdraw

"...they have more resources. They also make most of the products"

The key word you're missing there is "cheaper". The have cheaper resources and make cheaper products than can be mined / built in other parts of the world. (Mainly due to cheap labour and lax regulations) If China shut up shop tomorrow we would be paying more for everything but there's nothing at all that couldn't be replaced.

Firefox 105 is here, and it's faster and more memory-frugal

Re: Vertical Tabs

Big fan of tree style tabs here too. I went to check out the Vertical tabs extension page and the first thing I thought was "Only 4 reviews all 5*? Stinks."

UK's largest water company investigates datacenters' use as drought hits

Re: If only

Joe Public won't put up with the latency on cat videos if they have to be served from within the Arctic circle..

Google: We had to shut down a datacenter to save it during London’s heatwave

Re: Hot cloud

Datacentres are a bit like plane crashes are to car crashes. It's much safer to fly, but they do make it to the news when one goes down....

Google Cloud growth slows, losses grow, bosses unworried

Re: So they lost less than a billion over $69.7 billion in revenue

Not a chance of any fretting... Search / advertising is dominant in the market and making plenty of money. Cloud is relatively recent for Google and they want to grab market share. Then they can turn the screws. Gotta speculate to accumulate...

Browsers could face two regimes in Europe as UK law set to diverge from EU

Re: FUD?

"So they track my mouse movements to try and trick me into clicking on some affiliate link?"

No it's more sinister than that... they track your behaviour on a website to decide where to place certain elements. It's another facet of dark design. These are changes to encourage behaviour that you think you decided wholly by yourself without external influence.

A real-world example I read about earlier.... In France, shops with Air Conditioning have been ordered to keep their doors closed to help save energy. Why would they keep them open you think? Surely it's costing them money. But... research shows more people will just wander in an open door and once in, they can be encouraged to buy or spend.

British intelligence recycles old argument for thwarting strong encryption: Think of the children!

Re: Dear government

I totally agree with you but, by the very definition of the word Govern, we are their business!

DRAM prices to drop 3-8% due to Ukraine war, inflation

Re: Coz war?

Coz: "weaker demand for consumer electronics as a result of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine"

People getting bombed on a daily basis don't buy new consumer electronics....

Chipmakers to spend record $109b on fab machines this year

Re: Overcapacity is good though

"Slack is absolutely necessary to the long-term profitability of a company."

It's also the antithesis of modern thinking in business and almost every other part of modern life...

If you have spare capacity, it's "a waste of money" according to the beancounters.

So many things are oversold these days with the assumption that when it comes to it, a certain percentage will not be used or needed. (eg. Airline tickets)

Retail staff are rotated every day through tasks as required to keep them 100% busy. (Till opening / closing)

All in the pursuit of 100% efficiency which IS more efficient most of the time but, as you say, it leaves you vulnerable when the smallest thing fouls up.

France levels up local video game slang with list of French terms to replace foreign words

Re: E-sports professionals?

Sport - "an activity involving physical exertion"

So it's definitely not a sport.

E-Sports are a game of skill: reactions, strategy, dexterity etc.

As for watching it, anyone saying "can't understand", "it's boring" etc are just showing their age. Anything can be interesting performed at it's highest levels. Apparently quite a few people watch a load of cooks in a tent bake stuff, or celebrities perform ballroom dancing!

As someone who spent significant time leant on an arcade cabinet waiting for their turn, watching others play was almost as fun. Just be wary of criticizing new things you don't personally find interesting, it's another step towards being old and irrelevant.

Clonezilla 3: Copy and clone disk images to your heart's content

SSD

"duplicate your old hard disk onto the new superfast drive"

Probably the fastest way to revive an ageing PC and make it useful again. Chuck in some extra RAM and you're golden for a few more years.

Not used Clonezilla, Macrium Reflect does the job for me and it's been painless and reliable. (and free for typical users)

SAP attracts further criticism for Russia presence, despite promise to leave

To be honest, it would almost be a badge of virtue to be barred from Russia now. I can imagine gobal companies' PR material will soon state "proudly banned from Russia since 2022".

It does make me chuckle when Russia publish the lists of sanctioned individuals... I'm sure it's ruined a lot of holiday plans... not!

Landmark case recognizes Bored Ape NFT as an asset

Crazy times!

A sizable percentage of the words in this article didn't even exist a couple of decades ago...

Cars in driver-assist mode hit a third of cyclists, all oncoming cars in tests

Obviously a lot more work to be done... Most motorists wouldn't consider an autonomous vehice useful until they can successfuly hit at least 75% of cyclists.

Ukrainian crook jailed in US for selling thousands of stolen login credentials

Re: Jurismydiction

The article doesn't say he broke any laws in Poland, although it does specifically mention 150k+ servers in the USA. If he hadn't been physically to the US before, he certainly had digitally.

Not sure why Florida was given separate stats though, does the rest of the US hate Florida so much they've disowned it?!

Apple to replace future iPhone Lightning port with USB-C next year, this guy claims

Re: "The UK Government"

I actually think it's a savvy move... As you say Apple will produce a single model, likely with USB3 if the EU legislation prevails. Thus we (and the rest of the world) will get the environmental benefits* without having to spend £millions on overpaid studies, long lunches and endless debate.

* Because there's nothing environmentally friendly about consumer electronics....

Apple's grip on iOS browser engines disallowed under latest draft EU rules

"Err, Safari works fine for the user."

Err, no it doesn't. Safari is intentionally crap so that everyone who wants / needs a presence on iPhone develops an app. Completely coincidentally (of course), this protects Apple's revenue stream...

Apps were a great stop-gap for richer functionality back when the web was really just HTML, they should have gradually disappeared as the web caught up.

Microsoft dogs Strontium domains to stop attacks on Ukraine

Re: Why? Because it's the right thing.

The "ulterior motive", as you put it, is the reputational damage resulting from more exploits and data losses from services they provide. It's in their interest to make Windows, Office, Azure etc as reliable as possible* which in the end means more customers.

*I realize this is an open goal, discard that witty scathing comment now and move along..

Rivals aren't convinced by Microsoft's one-click default browser change

Re: The Most Down Voted Post Ever

"make a good browser and people will actually want to use it."

Is that how Chrome actually gained dominance? Yes, it was good and quick and clean in the beginning, but boy, didn't they shove it down your throat every way possible... Google definitely used their (almost) search monopoly to massively push Chrome.

South Yorkshire to test fiber broadband through water pipes

It should have been law years ago that all new housing being built had a large multi-purpose duct is laid for future use. Would have prevented a lot of repeat excavations.

Google now requires two staff to sign off each Go change

Re: 3+ for internal ?

Obviously you've never dealt with management.... generally they get promoted for their underling's work!

Instant NeRF turns 2D photos into 3D scenes in seconds

Move in. Enhance.

Apple delivers desktop, mobile OS updates, patches dozens of security holes

Re: “gender-neutral voice”

Will they come with GPP though?

OneWeb drops launches from Russia's Baikonur spaceport

Re: Hilarious!

Hopefully this might show the beancounters the importance of having your own launch capabilities. The West is heading in the right direction but it's all about a decade too late. If there had been less mucking about and more money, OneWeb could really have said "Screw you" knowing there was plenty of alternatives.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but it's not like there hasn't been a lot of shouting about this very situation for years...

Photon fantastic: James Webb Space Telescope spies its first starlight

-20°C graded sleeping bag

My eyes were opened to the grading of sleeping bags when I realized that they were graded by "you wont die" sleeping in it at this temperature, rather than "nice and cosy" at this temp!

No, I've not read the screen. Your software must be rubbish

Re: What error message?

Yep, can't fix stupid... but they will ring up straight away and get the problem solved by a competent person before losing any data.

I would imagine the process would go something like this:

Start program - press / click without reading alert - exits.

Start program - press / click again a bit more slowly and carefully - exits.

Start program - actually read message - press/click - exits.

Start program - read again really, really carefully and try to comprehend meaning - press/click - exits.

Call tech support...

Re: What error message?

On startup:

Warning - disk almost full - free up space before continuing. Press any key to exit

Problem solved.

Hands up who ISN'T piling in to help Epic Games appeal Apple App Store ruling

Re: Dominant fish in a small pond of expensive carps.

I agree with what you're saying and yes I did mean iPhones, where of course they are the de-facto 100% dominant operator.

But... iPhone owners spend massively more money in the App Store than their nearest competitor Google Play. (Quick search.. "estimated $41.5 billion on apps from the Apple App Store during the first six months of 2021, almost double $23.4 billion by Android")

Since Apple is one company compared to effectively the rest of the world I would still argue it's pretty dominant. If you're an app developer and want to make it big you HAVE to be in the App Store and therefore you HAVE to pay the Apple tax.

So their hardware sales are irrelevant... they have a dominant position in selling apps and therefore can dictate terms without the usual considerations to being competitive.

"...they did build this house a brick at a time and now they reap a decade of very solid marketing and engineering."

This is true but I think the point should be that ther percentage rake-off should have dropped over the years as the app store market (and apps in general) exploded. 30% while you're building an ecosystem and heavily investing in things such as the distribution infrastructure is fine. As the market has matured they are getting a massive chunk of other people's profit for very little work.

If Apple had gradually reduced the % take over the years and were now only taking 5%, nobody would be complaining and they would still be making a shit-ton of money. They kept it at 30% purely because they have such a dominant market position.

Earth to Voyager 2: Standby for connection – after we tip this water out of the dish

160 bits per second...

They can manage 19 billion km! My wifi feels slower than that when I go to the shed at the bottom of the garden....

OpenShell has been working on a classic replacement for Windows 11's Start menu

If there's one thing I really hate about UI updates it's pointlessly moving shit about.... Just about sums up Windows for me.

'Please download in Microsoft Excel': Meet the tech set to monitor IT performance across central UK government

Re: Oops…

"Do they have a mini-fridge in the office for the Friday drinks parties, eh?!"

Friday Work Event, thankyou very much!

The James Webb Space Telescope has only gone and deployed its primary mirror

Fantastic stuff, and quite telling that the actual Rocket Science bit (ie. The upcoming burn) is just a footnote in the complexity worries about JWST.

Rocket Science isn't what it used to be... How far we've come :-)

Google joins others in Big Tech: Get vaccinated – or you're fired

Re: regular lateral flow testing

"Likewise, just because you received a couple of COVID jabs at some point in the past, it doesn't mean you're not positive and capable of transmitting the infection."

Correct, but it does mean you will probably pass a LOWER viral load for a SHORTER period of time.

Re: 'we shouldn't stigmatize the unvaccinate'

Coronaviruses are a different type of virus and mutate much more frequently, compared to something like Measles.

Compare it to something more similar such as the flu - Vaccinations every year.

Now give it up ffs.

Re: This thread should be gold

Given the demographic of this website, I'm hoping for a lot more rational opinions than you might come across on a BBC HYS or FB...

Is it decadent that I use four different computers each day, at different times?

Re: Computers are cheap so why worry?

Yes. If you're a gardener you don't worry about the amount of different digging implements you have! Right tool for the job...

Irish Health Service ransomware attack happened after one staffer opened malware-ridden email

So the ones who clicked the link and did the course are the ones that need a talking to?

Sounds like the email (inadvertently) did exactly what was needed!

NASA installs a new and improved algorithm to better track near-Earth asteroids

Sentry-II: more powerful than its predecessor, Sentry.

Say what you want about NASA wasting money but at least they didn't* hire a huge panel of consultants to determine a new, trendy public-friendly name** for the software. Sentry II: Job done.

*Please God, tell me they didn't hire consultants and this was what they came up with...

**Suggestions on a postcard to the usual address...

A smarter alternative to password recognition could be right in front of us: Unique, invisible, maybe even deadly

Re: Never watch daytime TV

Nothing worse than realizing you're now firmly in the demographic daytime TV adverts are aimed at....