@Ralph the Wonder Llama
Agreed. If they insist then tell them to phuck off!
Posts by DJV
2539 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Aug 2009
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Apple's revamped iPad beams a workhorse in from Planet Ludicrous
Croydon school rolling in toilet roll after Brexit gift deemed unfit for the Queen's Anus Horribilis
Don't be too shocked, but it looks as though these politicians have actually got their act together on IoT security
Boffins discover new dust clouds in the Solar System, Mercury has a surprisingly filthy ring
They're BAAACK: Windows 10 nagware team loads trebuchet with annoying reminders to GTFO Windows 7
On the eve of Patch Tuesday, Microsoft confirms Windows 10 can automatically remove borked updates
You'll never guess who's giving Google a right shoeing lately. Talking about barring Chrome, Search as defaults... any other nations watching?
Linux 5.0 is out except it's really 4.21 because Linus 'ran out of fingers and toes' to count on
Tuesday 5th March 2019 21:57 GMT 
It reminds me...
...of the programme numbering of the Burkiss Way (with Burkiss spelt wrong) where they not only started a new series half way through one programme (which is referred to as episodes 31 and 32) but also had two episodes called "Repeat Yourself The Burkiss Way" one broadcast a week after the other where the first few minutes of each were identical and are both referred to as episode 39.
For anyone not familiar, it was a sketch show that was the nearest equivalent to Monty Python on radio and is still often repeated on Radio 4 Extra. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burkiss_Way
USB4: Based on Thunderbolt 3. Two times the data rate, at 40Gbps. One fewer space. Zero confusing versions
The first ZX Spectrum prototype laid bare... (What? It was acceptable in the '80s)
Tuesday 5th March 2019 13:44 GMT
Saints of Silicon at the Centre for Computing History
Are they related to the elders of the internet?
Customer: We fancy changing a 25-year-old installation. C'mon, it's just one extra valve... Only wafer thin...
Why are there never free power sockets when my Y-fronts need charging?
'They took away our Cup-a-Soup!' Share your tales of bleak breakout areas with us
The biggest uptick in demand for software devs by bosses is for... *rubs eyes* blockchain engineers?!?
Lenovo kicks down door of MWC, dumps a stack of sexy new ThinkPads
Wednesday 27th February 2019 16:22 GMT
Re: 13.3" display in a 12" chassis
"My 17.3" laptop goes everywhere with me. It comes on planes with me. It comes on holiday with me. It goes in the car with me. It used to go to work with me (every single day for many years). It's used every single day for the entire life."
Sounds like you and your laptop are in a wonderful loving relationship - are you two married yet?
Windows 10 1809 looks unlikely to overtake prior build before 19H1 lands
Wednesday 27th February 2019 16:09 GMT
Looks like 1903 might be delayed anyway (no surprise there) given what ZDNet are saying here today:
No yoke: 'Bored' Aussie test pilot passes time in the cockpit by drawing massive knobs in the air
Unearthed emails could be smoking gun in epic GDPR battle: Google, adtech giants 'know they break Euro privacy law'
Who will stand up for European democracy? Us! says US software giant Microsoft
Oldest white dwarf star catches amateur's eye – and its dusty ring leaves boffins baffled
'Occult' text from Buffy The Vampire Slayer ep actually just story about new bus lane in Dublin
Windows Subsystem for Linux adds pop to release, SAC-T sacked, crypto-jacking apps: It's Microsoft's week
Solder and Lego required: The Register builds glorious Project Alias gizmo to deafen Alexa
What did turbonerds do before the internet? 41 years ago, a load of BBS
Dratted hipster UX designers stole my corporate app
Saturday 16th February 2019 14:40 GMT
Re: It's not just designers
"*Some* People in IT rarely seem to be interested in spending time watching what users actually do"
Also, some people, even when told what users do believe them wholly, which becomes their undoing!
20 years ago I was a developer at a company with an educational website. Once, while I was on holiday, one of the junior developers was asked by someone else in the company to produce a specific piece of software to run on the site - the "spec" was verbal only.
When I came back from holiday she told me that what the develope (who apparently hadn't questioned a single thing in the verbal "spec") had produced for her was "exactly what I'd asked for" but "didn't do what I wanted". After that she always came to me with requests so that we could battle our way to a common understanding of what was required and how it would actually look and function.
Want to know what 2020 holds? Microsoft has a little something for you
Saturday 16th February 2019 14:05 GMT
"In many areas it even went backward"
I suspect there are many of us hoping that "backward" trend continues so that a future version of Windows 10 will have the look and feel of Windows 7, revert an update system that allows us to block individual patches from screwing things up and isn't packed with telemetry snatching crap that phones home every couple of minutes!
Crash, bang, wallop: What a power-down. But what hit the kill switch?
Roses are red, this is sublime: We fed OpenAI's latest chat bot a classic Reg headline
US kids apparently talking like Peppa Pig... How about US lawmakers watching Doctor Who?
Earth's noggin took quite a clockin' back in the day: Now a second meteorite crater spotted under Greenland ice
How I got horizontal with a gimp and untangled his cables
Saturday 9th February 2019 21:18 GMT
@Stevie
OMG Stevie! I remember that exact column. It made me laugh so much I cut it out and kept it for years - not sure what happened to it in the end! Is it online anywhere?
A few years back I did a similar thing regarding the wardrobe in that, just before selling my previous house, I ran out of paint for the wall, so plonked the wardrobe in front of the unpainted bit. As I had no use for the wardrobe in the new house, I asked the new owner if he wanted it. He said yes - I always wondered how long it took him to discover the lack of paint behind it.
Friday 8th February 2019 15:14 GMT
Re: Bent coat-hanger and curtain wire
I once used one of my cats to help run a new replacement light fitting cable under the floor of the upstairs bedroom in my bungalow conversion. A piece of string was tied to the cat's collar who was then encouraged by my partner to the other end of the 15 feet or so of narrow underfloor passage, which he did quite happily. Once the string had reached the far end it was a simple job to untie the cat and use the string to pull the actual cable through.
Boffin suggests Trappist monk approach for Spectre-Meltdown-grade processor flaws, other security holes: Don't say anything public – zip it
Monday 4th February 2019 23:24 GMT
My first reaction is to smack my forehead, and think, "What an idiot!"
However, a lot of it depends on the company or organisation that owns/maintains the software/service/device upon which the flaw exists.
If the company is known to be responsible and can indicate privately to the whitehat discoverer that the flaw needs X amount of time to fix (where X might be relatively small for software and probably a lot larger where hardware may be involved) then the discoverer should allow the company that amount of time (+ a bit of leeway) if it sounds reasonable to develop and push out the update. For those companies that are known to ignore such things and only react when the faeces hit the rotating blade type air circulating device then public disclosure should not be held back as that is the only way to get the flaws fixed.
In the end the way a flaw should be reported, patched and eventually made public should depend on an agreed, responsibly thought out timeline for that particular flaw that prioritises public security (and doesn't just pay lip service to it).
With regard to Spectre/Meltdown then El Reg's disclosure was probably timely as Intel has, in the past, been known to downplay things until their hand is forced.
Bug-hunter faces jail for vulnerability reports, DuckDuckPwn (almost), family spied on via Nest gizmo, and more
Terribly Sorry Bank reports 165% drop in profits to a pre-tax loss of £105.4m
Musk shows off the latest power plant for Starship, replaces Tesla CFO with a millennial
Q. What do you call an IT admin for 20-plus young children? A. A teacher
Tuesday 29th January 2019 14:41 GMT
Re: "Young students, for example, cannot be expected to remember and enter a password. "
Well then, just empty out their accounts - they might actually start getting the idea then!
It's similar with data backups - people don't do them until they get bitten by losing something essential (though, it does take a couple bites before they really start doing it properly).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
