Posts by Ben Boyle

Virginia scraps poke-to-vote machines hackers destroyed at DefCon

Virginia voting machines

My last rounds of voting used a paper ballot that was completed and then fed into a scanner attached to the machine. Scanned and paper audit trail collected, I assume.

Scottish pensioners rage at Virgin cabinet blocking their view

Buckfast or MD 20/20

Chrome wants to remember which Websites to silence

YouTube?

Will this include YouTube? It;s REALLY ANNOYING when you go to a channel's page to view the list of videos and the profile video starts to play, then when you select a video to watch, watch, hit back to return to the list it plays again... and again... and again...

UK government's war on e-cigs is over

re: Godwin

Farage's law?

UK regulator set to ban ads depicting bumbling manchildren

Re: This is a good thing

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/494595922/public-goods-revolutionizing-household-products

BOFH: Putting the commitment into committee

Re: A Question of style

@Sir Runcible - what you want is called "Fences" from Stardock. Lovely little piece of software.

http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

LinkedIn U-turns on Bluetooth-enabled 'Tinder for marketers'

Re: Update

You're not the only one. Straw poll of my connections who use linkedin agree that the amount of spam coming to linkedin-only addresses has increased drastically in the past couple of months.

Embrace our cloud, damn you: Microsoft dangles 40% discount on Azure instances

Re: Whoops, maybe next month...

My masthead vulture seems to have gone for a pint, too. Pity, as he was a really helpful guy to have around.

Windows 10 Creators Update general rollout begins with a privacy dialogue

Re: That installation dialogue in full...

[ ] Just the tip

Facebook, Google, etc: Yeah, yeah, we'll work on the nasty stuff about bombs – but we ain't doing no backdoors

It's simples

Add a question when people create accounts... "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of a terrorist organization?" and if they pick "yes" ten don't let them have an account so then they can't communicate.

Job done, now off to the pub for a pint.

Oxford Uni boffins say internet filters probably won't protect teens

In other news

Pope Catholic, ursine feces found in woods...

"accidental" censorship or step one on the road to having the capabilities in place and generally accepted.

COP BLOCKED: Uber app thwarted arrests of its drivers by fooling police with 'ghost cars'

Re: All hail Uber!!

Mine too - Ka-Bar tactical spork

Imagine a ChromeOS-style Windows 10 ... oh wait, there it is and it's called Windows Cloud

Windows RT

Wasn't one of the problems for RT that people saw "Windows" and got pissed that they couldn't run their normal apps on it? Won;t making Windows Cloud UWP only have a similar effect?

Court finds GCHQ and MI5 engaged in illegal bulk data collection

Law retrospectively changing in...

3... 2... 1...

Willing to bet there'll be no actual punishment, maybe a vaguely worded statement about lessons leaned and words having been had with the persons involved.

UK will build new nuclear bomb subs, says Defence Secretary

Re: Vanguard, Victorious, Vigilant and Vengeance

Tinky Winky, Dipsy, La La and Po.

She cannae take it, Captain Kirk! USS Zumwalt breaks down

@Francis Boyle - Re: That's what happen when you have a Kirk...

Norfolk is also the home of PETA, so no hi-jinks with any furry creatures or there'll be uproar.

You call it 'hacking.' I call it 'investigation'

Puts the finger

IN the problem... FTFY

T-Mobile USA: DON'T install Apple's iOS 10, for the love of God

Can we get some photos of T-Mob users

So we can see if they're holding it correctly?

Inside our three-month effort to attend Apple's iPhone 7 launch party

Re: Game, Set & Match to the Vultures

2009 MBP here - probably wont be buying another unless they bring back the 17". Trying to use X Code on anything smaller is an exercise in frustration and while, yes, I could buy a larger display the point of the portable is that I can, well, PORT it and use it when I'm away from my comfy abode or uncomfy office.

Adblock Plus blocks Facebook's ad-blocker buster: It's a block party!

Blocking legitimate posts?

Facebook are already doing that themselves with their constant switching people to the "Top Stories" feed and selective display of items in the "Most Recent" list.

E.g. SWMBO says to me "Why didn't you like my latest cute discovery I posted ten minutes ago?" and yet it's nowhere in my news feed. I go to her page to feast mine eyes upon her missive and have to wade through half a ton of "Posts I may not have seen yet" and stuff from two days ago before finally finding the post from ten minutes back.

Curation, my ass.

Server vendor has special help desk for lying, incompetent sysadmins

Re: Wrong sized hammer

AKA "Percussive Maintenance"

Re: "Microsoft Certified Support Engineer"

Or indeed Must Consult Somebody Experienced

Crooks abusing Facebook to offer credit card samples

Re: Just one reason

No need for a soldering iron with my bank - the CVV number rubs off after a couple of weeks of wallet exercising activity with no help from anyone.

Which is great right before Christmas when you need to make an online purchase and can't remember it :/

Cloudian clobbers car drivers with targeted ads

Uniquely relevant

On your way home from the dealership: "You're driving a brand new BMW... would you like to buy a new BMW?"

Just picked up your daughter: "You recently searched for baby products, you should buy Pampers!"

In the car with the wife and she's looking a bit testy: "Try AshleyMadison.com, free for 30 days!"

We may expect targeted ads, because that's what's being shoved down our throats, but it doesn't mean that we *like* it.

Microsoft's paid $60 per LinkedIn user – and it's a bargain, because we're mugs

El Reg seems to be monetizing it's user base, too

Given that I had a call on my work cellphone number from "The Register on behalf of Kaminario" trying to give me all flash storage white papers a couple of weeks ago...

One wonders what value Vulture Central places on individual commentards.

Adpocalypse 'will wipe out display ad growth' by 2020

Re: Is it just me ....

@Kryptonaut

You'd have a fair point if the ads weren't obnoxious, invasive, or occasionally carrying a malware payload. Until the online ad industry can clean up its act, then blocking is the only way to stay safe.

Site owners should be applying pressure to the ad industry, not to their customers, if they want to keep the revenue stream.

Blocking ads? Smaller digital publishers are smacked the hardest

Re: My heart bleeds

4. Clean up your shit so that the ad networks aren't malware vectors.

Ireland's tech sector fears fallout of Brexit 'Yes' vote

Re: "no fixed controls on the land border between Northern Ireland and the republic"

@joeW... I will not make a leprechaun joke... I will not make a leprechaun joke... I will not make a leprechaun joke... I will not make a leprechaun joke...

Big-screen Skype gets small farewell note

Re: I <> Everyone

Yep, holiday calls with the extended and dispersed fam are the key use case for Skype on the TV, at least in the home. I've seen businesses use it for site to site in small conference rooms too.

Cinema boss gives up making kids turn off phones: 'That's not how they live their life'

Update from AMC

AMC just sent out an email saying that “… there will be NO TEXTING ALLOWED in any of auditoriums at AMC Theaters. Not today, not tomorrow and not in the foreseeable future.”

Czech Republic to rebrand

Re: Will the Czechs change their name to Czechians?

@chivo243 - Hollandaise?

Adblock wins in court again – this time against German newspaper

Re: $22bn

Obviously they're using the same mathematicians and formulae to calculate losses as the RIAA

FBI backs down against Apple: Feds may be able to crack killer's iPhone without iGiant's help

Re: precedent

Trying to derive a whine-whine from the loose-loose situation...

More and more Brits are using ad-blockers, says survey

Re: @Lost all faith Same here

@Tom 13

Odd, my wife has the same reaction to Outback's food. Personally I find the over the top "aussie" accent used by their voice over people to be incredibly irritating, but I know a few others who think it;s great.

Brit censors endure 10-hour Paint Drying movie epic

Re: Brilliant

AFRICAN-American wall, so the Academy Awards nominations won't be a whitewash...

Getting metal hunks into orbit used to cost a bomb. Then SpaceX's Falcon 9 landed

Now push... and pull... and PUSH....

Rebels defeat the Empire (again) by giving BB-8 an API

Re: An API is OK, but ...

I have the Hasbro version, and it's actually fun to play with for short periods of time. The dog figured out quite quickly that if he bops the demon just the right way his head will fall off, but that's part of the joy....

Cisco forgot to install two LEDs in routers

Re: Not Just Cisco

I have a Dell laptop (E5550) that has a numeric keypad, but no num lock indicator light. Caps lock and the hardware mic mute have lights built into the keys but not num lock.

FFS.

Ended up finding a bit of software that puts an indicator in the system tray.

Dell: How to kill that web security hole we put in your laptops, PCs

Re: Three Keys To Improved Computer Security.

Delldos

Reg reader achieves bronze badge, goes directly to jail

Re: I've been around here for ages

Upvote for correct use and spellage of "piqued"

ASA slaps Ebuyer AGAIN - this time for ignoring regulator

Re: This article needs an Editor

"Pidgin" English

Hi, um, hello, US tech giants. Mind, um, mind adding backdoors to that crypto? – UK govt

Re: Own Goal

Or perhaps that's what we're meant to think.

'T-shaped' developers are the new normal

Re: I'm pleased I don't live in a mind...

Perhaps it's less a T and more of an inverted isosceles triangle, which when converted to 3-D becomes a cone... which is rounded from some angles but still has varying depth.

TalkTalk incident management: A timeline

TalkTalk, soon to be rebranded "Fuck. Fuuuuuuck!"

Silicon Valley now 'illegal' in Europe: Why Schrems vs Facebook is such a biggie

"Spung"... I like it. Sounds kind of unpleasant and dirty, much like the media spin on a lot of topics. Henceforth I shall use your newly coined term, Sir!

XcodeGhost attack tapped into dev distaste for Apple's Gatekeeper

Re: Let me see...

And if you're a student or hobbyist you don't actually have to pay to download Xcode while you learn - you only need to pay the $99 when you want to submit your apps to the app store. Sell your app for $1 and you only need to punt 141 copies (allowing for the 30% apple tax) to break even...

'To read this page, please turn off your ad blocker...'

I tried turning off the ad blocker on my tablet

As above, I turned it off for a day or so, but the number of times an ad displaying on reddit or imgur pushed me to some crappy application in the play store before I could see the post i was trying to get to pissed me off and I turned the blocker back on.

That's the kind of shit that forces people to take steps against the ads. police the ads that your customers are pushing through your ad networks and maybe that trend will reverse. Stopping visiting a site doesn't work either because the same damned ad gets served on multiple sites and you can never predict which ad network is being used where.

'Walter Mitty' IT manager admits to buying gun on dark web

Re: Luger

Probably an LCP - the LC9 is 9mm and that one clearly says it's a .380

Google Adblock shock a load of cock – users mock post hoc

Re: Simple solution for google

For me it's pretty big. I've also started closing tabs on the sites that offer list of "funny" things that end up being one per page, and 3/4 of each page is ads or random links to other lists of funny things and related content.

I seriously see some of them on my tablet where the content I want is in the top left quarter of the screen (landscape) and the other 3/4 are crap that takes ages to load. Going through ten pages of that is a major nope and it seems that there are way more of those being shared as clickbait on the ad free content network of late.