* Posts by Danny 2

2212 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009

Transcribe-my-thoughts app would prevent everyone knowing what I actually said during meetings

Danny 2

Re: Engineer on HR violence

Me, I've got a bucket list and I keep track of them geographically and by seriousness. I reckon I'll be half way through my top ten before the police even make a connection.

To my credit I've delayed retribution for decades - best served cold.

Danny 2

Re: Waarom

Lowland Scots is a mix of Dutch and English, and we roll our Rs and cough our Lochs, but no, they couldn't understand the brogue. In my experience most ABN Dutch learned RP English from the BBC World Service, an ye dinnae fi ma accent on the BBC. To be honest Aberdonian Doric is far stranger to me than Groningen is to you.

Danny 2

Engineer on HR violence

France murders: Man with hatred for HR suspected in attacks

I dare any unemployed engineer to read that crime report without their first thought being, "Why didn't he disguise his number plate?"

And sure we shouldn't be murdering job centre staff willy nilly, but a decent engineer murderer would have taken basic precautions. Maybe he deserved to be unemployed / caught.

Danny 2

Waarom

I worked in Europe for global organisations that insisted that English was the only spoken and written language. I felt kind of guilty but the locals weren't resentful as they just ignored it and would speak among themselves and come up with a group position. So the monolingual English speakers came up with coping strategies. We'd listen to long foreign diatribes before responding, "Waarom?" or "Pour Quoi?" as if we'd understood everything, that's freak them. I taught my English colleagues Lowland Scots so we could talk amongst ourselves like Navajo code talkers.

Taiwan scores Google’s first hardware engineering lab outside the US of A

Danny 2

Not being a dick there.

I correct people's grammar and spelling online because that's how I learned since I wasn't taught in school. Oh, and when I worked in Europe and tried to learn the lingo I was never short of people who'd happily correct my mistakes. Because of my Scottish accent one Dutch receptionist told me, "Don't learn Dutch, learn English".

If I wanted to be a dick then I'd point out that a Bronze badge holder can't award bonus dick points here. I'll take those bonus dick points from a Gold badge holder. You just haven't earned it yet, baby.

Danny 2

Didn't Google also buy HTC's mobile division a couple of years back?

Google also bought HTC's mobile division a couple of years back.

Friend is not Google your Translate.

What's a COVID-19 outbreak? Amazon gets all Trumpy over Alabama warehouse workers' mail-in vote to form a union

Danny 2

Re: Unions vs companies is really just fire vs frying pan

First tech job, 17, I asked if there was a union. I was told never to mention the U word again or I'd be sacked. In place of a union the design engineers would bargain for worker's rights. They couldn't afford to sack all the design engineers, they literally knew too much.

First unionised job I didn't join because shitty workers were getting away with shit.

Next unionised job I joined because they were moderate and reasonable, and in retrospect allowed me to get away with shit.

Danny 2

'Wealth increase of 10 men during pandemic could buy vaccines for all'

The report said that Mr Bezos's worth had climbed so much between March-September 2020 that he could have given all 876,000 Amazon employees a $105,000 bonus and still have been as wealthy as he was before the pandemic.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-55793575

Completed Netflix? Indulge your inner nerd with a virtual talk from a computer museum

Danny 2

the Bletchley Park estate (although independent of the Bletchley Park Trust)

Splitters! Cable splitters.

Europe considers making it law that your boss can’t bug you outside of office hours

Danny 2

Re: AZ tells EU to F-Off

Apparently we've been prioritising care homes over octogenarians, which takes longer but should prolong more life. What jab did your mum and mum in law get, and when are they getting a boost?

We have one Labour MP in Scotland, before Blair we were all Labour MPs. It's pretty much a defunct relic now, without a leader.

May election will be another SNP win, leading to a popular if illegal independence vote. It's high time to register TheRegister.Scot.

Danny 2

Re: AZ tells EU to F-Off

Actually Prof. Sridhar has been a consistent and reliable voice of reason throughout the pandemic, and has been published and interviewed by media across the political spectrum.

My mid eighties parents got their first vaccine today, the AZ one, told the follow up would be two months from now. Neither the vaccine or the delay are ideal but better than nothing.

Boris is in town so we'd all prepared a diatribe in case we bumped into him or his circling media circus. Sadly he eluded us - indeed he eluded any member of the public. His mishandling of the covid crisis makes him the embodiment of the case for Scottish independence as the past 20 polls show.

Who is this Sir Keir you mention?

Danny 2

Re: AZ tells EU to F-Off

It's "Your news is" not "Your news are".

Yes, apparently the EU press release was a lie and AZ always said they'd attend. You've mistaken the issue though. The EU were demanding that AZ diverted supplies from their British plant to supply the EU, due to a shortfall in the EU plants. AZ weren't trying to divert supplies from EU plants to the UK.

I'm a huge critic of the British government handling of the pandemic (Here are five ways the government could have avoided 100,000 Covid deaths) but in terms of advance booking of vaccines and roll-out the UK is far ahead of the EU.

I mean, it's kind of ironic that you haven't even approved the AZ vaccine yet.

Danny 2

AZ tells EU to F-Off

The EU has been hoist by it's own petard, calling a last minute evening meeting only to be snubbed.

AstraZeneca cancels steering board meeting with EU

Vaccine-maker AstraZeneca has refused to attend a meeting top EU officials scheduled for Wednesday evening amid an escalating dispute over production shortfalls, according to a Commission official.

Danny 2

Re: Soberish

One benefit of cycling to work ;-)

Danny 2

A company added an on call requirement. I agreed as long as it was paid back in overtime, three hours off for each hour worked - and each interruption an hour long. So, a one hour or five minute call, that's three hours off when it suits me. A one hour and five minute call, that's six hours off when suits me.

I wasn't married so didn't mind working outside hours but I deeply resented having to stay sober. ish.

I worked for a global group and the French and Belgian employees were a joke, the only times you could contact them was 10am to 11:30am, plus 2pm to 4pm. And good for them.

Perl-clutching hijackers appear to have seized control of 33-year-old programming language's .com domain

Danny 2

Re: I used to dislike Perl

With all the will in the world

Diving for dear life

When we could be diving for Perl.

US cyber intelligence officer jailed for kidnapping her kid, trying to hawk top secrets to Russia in Mexico

Danny 2

Re: Side issue but...

It's for when the crimes are related, and if the first hadn't happened then the second wouldn't have, and so they should all be lumped together under the headline crime. For example if you play your music a tad too loud one time, and end up concussed in a cell for resisting arrest.

A court appointed female lawyer explained, "So, you're saying things just went tits-up."

I relied, "No, that's not what I am saying, certainly not in court."

"That wasn't a question. I will ask you if things went tits-up and then you reply, Yes, sorry."

What happens when the internet realizes the stock market is basically a casino? They go shopping at the Mall

Danny 2

Maybe not a bubble

GameStop just tweeted :

For the 8th consecutive year, @GameStop has earned a perfect score of 100 on @HRC’s 2021 Corporate Equality Index. We’re proud of our associates for their continued commitment to promoting #LGBTQ equality in the workplace and community!

If such positive news had leaked a few days back then it could explain why everyone chose to invest. A perfect 100!

Soon, no more blood tests or probing for prostate cancer? AI claims 99% success rate using more relaxing methods

Danny 2

No cards, thanks, we're contactless-less: UK supermarket giants hit by card payment TITSUP*

Danny 2

Re: "No contactless"....

Careful with the sarcasm there! One benefit to contactless (when it works) is quicker transaction time so quicker customer through-put, useful in a pandemic. I'd never used contactless before and find it fails about 10% of the time forcing me to enter the card and pin. I suspect that's because it's not my card and they suspect me!

Danny 2

Yeah, I used the Co-op at 10am (whisky and cat treat run) and contactless was fine. I'd taken cash just in case because of the importance of the shop.

One thing I hate about Morrisons self-service is you have to touch the screen to select contactless, the same wee square everyone else touches. Kind of defeats the purpose, though I just poke it with a pencil.

Showering malware-laced laptops on UK schools is the wrong way to teach them about cybersecurity

Danny 2

Re: re: free school meals

Dear TDog,

I'll gie ye some advice,

You'll tak it no uncivil:

You shouldna paint at angels mair,

But try and paint the devil.

To paint an Angel's kittle wark,

Wi' Nick, there's little danger:

You'll easy draw a lang-kent face,

But no sae weel a stranger

Danny 2

Re: re: free school meals

And a happy Burns Night to you too!

Then let us pray that come it may,

As come it will for a’ that,

That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth

Shall bear the gree an’ a’ that.

For a’ that, an’ a’ that,

It’s comin yet for a’ that,

That Man to Man the warld o’er

Shall brithers be for a’ that.

Danny 2

Elite English footballers are so privileged compared to Scottish footballers. They get to provide free school meals to hungry children, while in Scotland politicians already did that.

I just checked the Scottish equivalent to malware laptops.

More than 23,000 iPads and Chromebooks are being distributed among digitally excluded low-income families and care leavers, as part of the latest phase of the £43 million programme. As well as a new device, recipients also receive mobile data and help to use the internet confidently and safely for up to two years.

That seems like gross over-spec but safe. I doubt it's enough numbers but frankly the poorest 8 year old I know has an internet connected Playstation for his GTA that could work for schooling. (Yes I know an eight year old shouldn't be playing Grand Theft Auto. I managed to persuade his parents to stop smoking in their house. Wee changes.)

Digital burglars break into the Australian Securities and Investments Commission

Danny 2

Re: Outdated infrastructure...

FLA is a TLA.

Danny 2

Re: Outdated infrastructure...

Application-specific integrated circuit

Any sort of custom chip. Fun!

Man arrested after UK school finds wiped hard drives on devices connected to network

Danny 2

aged 21

I had five 17 year old apprentices when I was 21. It seemed normal at the time and I did my best for them even as 'Silicon Glen' began collapsing about our ears. They were definitely smart enough to cause major mischief if they hadn't been employed and trained and motivated.

In my era - Thatcher's era - apprenticeships were a real thing, not a job creation scheme. It utterly scunners me that they've become a new YTS.

And I used to be a citizen

I never felt the pressure

I knew nothing of the horses

Nothing of the thresher

Apple: Magsafe on the iPhone 12 may interfere with pacemakers and cardiac defibrilators

Danny 2

Re: One can suspend MacBooks with a magnet too

Real shame that humans aren't as good as MacBooks at returning from standby mode, though.

Have you tried turning him off and on again?

My dad has a pacemaker so isn't allowed in the kitchen when the microwave is on, on doctors orders. Engineers here have claimed that is paranoid, but I doubt they are medically qualified to diagnose paranoia.

My octogenarian parents are getting their first Covid vaccine later this week. Assuming they survive that long. Their attitudes are telling. My dad is angry he wasn't the first person to get a vaccine. My mum doesn't want hers and thinks it should be given to an NHS worker.

Me, I'm herding cats.

Fedora's Chromium maintainer suggests switching to Firefox as Google yanks features in favour of Chrome

Danny 2

It's my ball, and I'm taking it home

"There are numerous references to the "It's my ball, and I'm taking it home" huffy idiom, including a charming panda. Just don't search for them using my browser APIs. They are mine, and I'm taking them home. " ~ Sundar Pichai

You would expect a qualified electrician to wire a building to spec, right? Trust... but verify

Danny 2

Respect the experience

It's great to read @TonyJ and @Blofeld's Cat.

Just because you are techies doesn't make you leckies. I threw my brother in law out of rewiring a relatives house because he wasn't a qualified electrician.

He exclaimed, "But I am a qualified electrician!"

"Really? What City and Guilds or National Qualifications do you have?"

"I am a qualified cable runner!"

"A rat is a qualified cable runner, they just aren't allowed to connect them."

A lorry ripped up an old overhead cable in my village, leaving a sparking cable jumping around on the pavement. My neighbours came to me to make it safe because I was an Electronics Engineer. I had to explain I didn't deal with anything over 12 volts but I had just the thing for them in my garage until the electricity board arrived - traffic cones.

In my first job there was an elderly tech who claimed to be able to measure high voltage by touching it against the back of his hand. He said he charged his car battery by holding up a wand to over-head power cables. Another guy at the same place was supposedly killed when someone threw a large charged capacitor at him as a joke.

Tesla axes software engineer for allegedly pilfering secret Python scripts after just three days on the job

Danny 2

Re: "Received a computer" "He also installed Dropbox"

Khatilov is an extremely rare Russian name. Sabhir is an Indian name. But I guess these don't raise red flags when the CEO is called Elon Musk.

Microsoft SolarWinds analysis: Attackers hid inside Windows systems by wearing the skins of legit processes

Danny 2

Ted talk perp walk

Dear SolarWinds hackers,

We were very impressed by your brilliant techniques and professional ethic. Would you please give a TED talk on it next month in Langley, Virginia? Feel free to wear a mask for anonymity, accommodation and food will be provided.

We'd rather go down in Down Under, says Google: Search biz threatens to quit Australia if forced to pay for news

Danny 2

Re: Farewell then

Barbies, Kylie, dunny, lappies, sickies?

There was those three Nobel Literature Prizes - nope, sorry that was New Zealand. There was that one Nobel Literature Prize.

Didn't a Dane build an opera house there? Reminiscent of 'Fitzcarraldo' building one in the Amazonian jungle.

Danny 2

Re: Farewell then

I wis joking, just to wind up blokes like The Crutoniser below. The fact that Google have caved in France shows they are fronting it in Australia, and haven't a global strategy.

There are some corporations that are more powerful than nation states, but so far none that are more powerful than all nation states. Maybe one day, not yet.

Danny 2

Re: Farewell then

The thing is though Google could escalate rapidly. They could block any reference to Australia and Australians from search results anywhere in the world. GoogleMaps could just blank out Australia as Terra Incognita. They could erase all of Australia's cultural triumphs such as ... well, such as they were.

ADT techie admits he peeked into women's home security cams thousands of times to watch them undress, have sex

Danny 2

Misquote

Warrants? We ain't got no warrants! We don't need no warrants! I don't have to show you any stinking warrants!

It never fails to amaze that people will pay to install cameras in their bedrooms and bathrooms, and yet are horrified when the footage is abused. I mean if you have to have security / sexurity cameras there then face them to the doors and the windows and remove the microphones.

Equally, when some tawdry tech commits thousands of crimes then they either use their own email address, ip address or credit card. I assume not every miscreant is this daft and the exposed morons are the tip of the iceberg.

Scottish enviro bods shrug off ransomware gang's extortion attempt as 4,000 files dumped online, saying it's nothing big

Danny 2

Bile yer heid

...is actually a very mild Scottish rebuke. Bear in mind our top veterinary college is called the Dick Vet, or the 'Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies'. It was the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in 1823, but then someone drew a penis on their sign after Royal, and they reckoned, 'aye, we're having that'.

Disclaimer: Actual history may no be as guid.

Nothing new since the microwave: Let's get those home tech inventors cooking

Danny 2

20p

object types that got stuck in people’s orifices and had to be removed

My older sister had to go to hospital after she pushed twenty peas up her nostrils. I'd like to say fifty in reference to Cool Hand Luke, but she was only six.

And no I didn't do it to her but I took it as a warning, "If I do this to my nose just imagine what I'll shove up yours."

Her next trip to the hospital was more serious when she jumped off our tenement holding an umbrella after seeing Mary Poppins. Sadly she is the smart one in our family and I repeated the trick years later with a home made parachute after seeing 'A Bridge Too Far'. Trial and error isn't a great test technique when you only get one chance, despite it working for my Action Man.

Google's Alphabet sticks a pin in its Loon internet broadband service

Danny 2

Burst balloons

To be fair it worked technically and functionally, just not financially. Who knew that the one billion people without internet access also were dirt poor?

I still think drone blimps are a tech for the future. What links the drone blimps? Higher drone blimps. It's drone blimps all the way up.

Judge denies Parler an injunction to force AWS to host the antisocial network for internet outcasts

Danny 2

Ayatoller

Now Twitter has banned Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei simply for making a jokey threat against Trump. As a Leftist I am truly appalled by this infringement of Khamenei's freedom of speech. He never posed a credible threat to the US Capitol, he was just sharing a funny meme.

Danny 2

Re: The beaver eulogy.

Ta Tim. It is one of the best poems I've read. The guy invited me out to his birthday party last Burns night, and I didn't go because I'm not sociable and only go out twice a year - I regret that now that I've been stuck in all year. Another poet, Attila the Stockbroker, wrote me this ode to another threatened species to read out -

WRITTEN FROM SCRATCH

The Earth is in a right old mess -

We’ve screwed it up indeed.

Pollution, global warming

And endless corporate greed.

So many species threatened

And some already gone -

Our planet groans in anguish

While the juggernaut rolls on.

We worry about the elephants

The bears and tigers too

And if they’re close to dying out

We breed them in a zoo.

It seems the only ones we save

Are big or have some hair

Cos 70 frog species have gone

And no one seems to care.

Now, since a kid, I’ve always loved

the world which crawls and squirms

I‘ve snakes and toads and newts at home

And even some pet worms….

And there’s a special little mite

The same size as a flea

I’ve always had a soft spot for -

(though no, not literally)

Now some blame the Brazilians

And some blame good old soap -

One long established guest of ours

Is quickly losing hope.

For centuries it munched its fill

Oblivious to class -

As fond of pauper’s privates

As a bit of Royal arse.

But in our hygiene-conscious age

It seems it’s had its day:

Even the Goths and Palace fans

Are scrubbing it away.

And if we carry on like this

The verdict is succinct -

Our one time nether nemesis

Will soon become extinct!

This is for conservationists

Who stand for animal rights

You need to make a bit of space

In underpants and tights…

It’s time to give it house room

And not just in your house

So heed the call of Nature now -

And save the pubic louse.

Danny 2

Re: Censorship by Private Companies

"censored some other group that incited illegal acts that we liked. E.g. Extinction rebellion"

El Reg just allowed me to post an epic pro-beaver poem by an Extinction Rebellion Scotland makar.

I half expected it to be deleted due to length and political divisiveness of their ongoing slaughter, though someone else had mentioned Scottish beavers as innuendo. The obvious tech angle was nature's engineers - we consider ourselves engineers but how many dams have any of built? WIRED agree - Fantastically Wrong: Why People Used to Think Beavers Bit Off Their Own Testicles

Beaver slaughter is (genuinely) a contentious issue in the Scottish Parliament, so I'd fully understand if The Register chose to limit beaver related posts. That wouldn't be censorship, and if beavers are banned from Twitter then I'll set-up my own servers to host beaver chat.

[One future tech angle - a lot of mobile phone masts here are disguised as trees to fit in with the local environment. It's not yet known if beavers will differentiate between them and real trees, or if the beavers will start taking out the phone masts]

Danny 2

Re: Censorship by Private Companies

I successfully lobbied to get Sputnik News aka Voice of Russia thrown out of Edinburgh's Chamber of Commerce. They must have bribed their way in, which is a stain on Edinburgh. I'm glad incorruptible London remains immune to Russian oligarchs filthy lucre.

Microsoft Edge goes homomorphic: Nobody will see your credentials... but you'll need to sign in to use it

Danny 2

Loser Trump's last financial disclosure docs reveal Tim Cook gave him $5,999 Mac Pro, the 'first' made in Texas

Danny 2

Re: Jon Schwarz article on Trump's nuclear threat

Trump actually called Kim sane, and called himself insane. He may not have meant to, who knows, but he did.

Danny 2

Jon Schwarz article on Trump's nuclear threat

This is off topic by the final line is hilarious.

By Far the Worst Thing Trump Did Was Flirt With Nuclear War With North Korea

When Trump was in the middle of his bizarre diplomacy with Kim Jong-un, he said something hilarious for perhaps the only time in his life: “As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine.” It was funny because it was true.

Laptops given to British schools came preloaded with remote-access worm

Danny 2

"Okay Year Two, have you finished your finger art? It's time for our IPSec PKI VPN and OS config class. Can anyone tell me what a virus is? Not you Mr Williamson, put down your hand. "

Negative Trustpilot review of law firm Summerfield Browne cost aggrieved Briton £28k

Danny 2

Covid angle

Maybe the guy couldn't attend due to Covid lockdown rules. Either way it seems suspicious that there are tens of thousands of serious criminal cases backlogged due to Covid yet a huffy lawyer gets court time.

London calling: 5G coverage in British capital grew during second half of last year with fastest speeds on Vodafone

Danny 2

You can say it

cheap beer, affordable housing, whippets, and pit ponies..(Your correspondant is a northener)

Northern French correspondent?

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would throw us off our 1,200 baud modem.

The report is interesting, I'm tempted to upgrade to 4G.

Over long US weekend, GitHub HR boss quit after firing Jewish staffer who warned Nazis were at the Capitol

Danny 2

Leave the Jews out of it

I was working at a Cisco kid a couple of decades ago and me and my boss turned up early for a meeting so were chatting away. He'd just bought his flat and I asked if that was wise as my cottage hadn't increased in value over the previous decade. He replied, "Even in the worst hyperinflation in pre-war Germany, property owners survived comfortably".

I replied, "Except for the Jews". I meant nothing by it, except 'the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley', and we shouldn't talk of investing in pre-war Germany without mentioning the catastrophe that followed.

At that point my bosses boss who had just entered said angrily and in disgust to me, "Please, leave the Jews out of it, that's unacceptable language."

I was totally nonplussed and for once lost for a response even though lots were on my tongue. Did he really think I was demeaning Jews - me, an anti-Nazi and Cohen fan? How do you discuss pre-war Germany without mentioning the Jews?

I expected my boss to explain what I'd said but he was silent. I realised my bosses boss really didn't like me before that and chose to misinterpret me, my boss didn't have my back, and so I started to look for another job. I wasn't censured or even disciplined in a way I could reason with or complain about, but knew that was time to go.