Posts by DJV

Don't shoot me, I'm only the system administrator!

Don't give them ideas!

Breaking the nerd internet: Three overlapping generations of tech history – in one selfie

Re: apparently he was known for writing exceptionally compact code

The original BASIC that came with the Commodore PET compacted away* a single INC instruction that meant that limited arrays to only 256 items (numbered 0 to 255, of course)! You could allocate above that limit but all that happened was that item 256 was placed in item 0's slot, 257 in 1's slot etc. This was fixed for the "New ROMs" (or BASIC 2.0) - the one where, to Commodore's annoyance when they found out, Microsoft had slipped in an Easter Egg so that the command WAIT6502,x (where x was any non-zero value) would print "MICROSOFT" on the screen x times.

* Probably more like they accidentally forgot to put that INC in the code in the first place!

Re: abuse by malicious actors

Possibly a way around this might be to require serial downvoters* to properly explain WHY they downvote someone else's comment. Their entered text would need to be analysed by something (could this be a good use for AI?) and rejected if it didn't make sense - i.e. to prevent someone mashing the keyboard randomly as a reply. Their reply, if accepted, would also be added to the conversation for all to see (but non-serial downvoters would be allowed to downvote the serial downvoter's reply without needing to explain why). If their reply is rejected, their downvote isn't applied. Too many rejections = suspension from commenting for a period.

* E.g. anyone who has downvoted others more than they have upvoted others in the past, say, three months.

(Hides while waiting for the inevitable downvotes!)

Windows 11 migration heats up... on desktops

Yes, but only for negative values of good.

Attack on Oxford City Council exposes 21 years of election worker data

Re: I wonder if...

Either that or a random MS Access database that just had to stay running as it was underpinning a whole bunch of other random stuff!

Microsoft 365 brings the shutters down on legacy protocols

Re: "Secure by Default"

Well, it's something possibly beginning with "S" "by Default" - but I don't think "Secure" is the right "S"...

Microsoft testing PC-to-Cloud-PC failover for those times your machine dies or disappears

After reading the article...

...I came to the comments section and was not at all disappointed with the universal slagging off of this turkey of a dumpster fire by the commentards.

Keep up the good work!

Logitech's latest keyboard and mouse combo is wired, quiet, and suspiciously sensible

Same here!

My wrist support is still intact, though.

I've changed PC many times since this keyboard fell into my lap secondhand in 2001, but the keyboard remains the one constant in my setup.

It was purchased for another user in 1999/2000 at the place I worked. When the company closed down in the second half of 2001 and that other user was long gone, having left in the first round of redundancies earlier that year, his keyboard was one of the things that was going to be thrown out. So, I nabbed it before some other bugger did! I also kept my work computer - however, as that was a 333MHz Simply PC running Windows 98, that has long been recycled!

Microsoft broke DHCP for Windows Server last Patch Tuesday

If it still works...

...then trying patching it until it doesn't!

UK students flock to AI to help them cheat

Re: Glorified calculators

Luxury!

Ours would cut off your little finger, thereby removing any future ability to count up to 10!

Wanted: Junior cybersecurity staff with 10 years' experience and a PhD

Re: and that disqualifies you immediately

Then again, do you really want to work for a company that prides itself in the employment of people who constantly generate such contradictions?

Of course, if the company also has a BOFH with more than 10 years of lift-shaft maintenance, a qualification in applied quicklime along with a sideline in rolled-up carpetry, there may still be hope for the place!

Hire me! To drop malware on your computer

Ah yes, GoDaddy...

Well-known crook enablers with no questions asked.

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

Well, unless it's Oracle, of course!

Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 Start Menu updates

We're making it easier...

"We're making it easier for you to launch your apps with our updated, scrollable Start menu..."

No, you're not!

On my one remaining Windows PC (running W10 LTSC so bugger the October cut-off), I have Quick Launch with nice, tiny application icons for all the programs (not apps!) that I commonly run. It takes up far less room and muscle memory means that I know exactly where each icon is located, as I've kept them in roughly the same order since XP days. Far quicker than anything else. As Windows 11 ditched Quick Launch completely, that was another reason (amongst thousands) for not updowngrading to it.

Techie fixed a ‘brown monitor’ by closing a door for a doctor

Re: can't remember what I had for tea two days ago

It was probably a nicely toasted memory worm.

User unboxed a PC so badly it 'broke' and only a nail file could fix it

Re: unaware (or in denial) of how bad their hearing is...

Pardon?

Adobe turns subscription screw again, telling users to pay up or downgrade

Re: Adobe turns subscription screw again, telling users to pay up or downgrade

And they fix reported bugs!

Dilettante dev wrote rubbish, left no logs, and had no idea why his app wasn't working

Re: The code was well structured but ...

A place I worked at 25 years ago had a Perl programmer who tended to write obscure (even for Perl) code with a complete dearth of comments, apart from one central and essential part of the code that contained the following gem:

# This is a skanky hack

His replacement found it easier to rewrite the code from scratch rather than attempt to figure out what it actually did.

Qatar’s $400M jet for Trump is a gold-plated security nightmare

Re: will be lucky if the new jets don't shed their wings upon first takeoff

There's a Larson for that!

People find amazing ways to break computers. Cats are even more creative

I have that saying framed!

Re: Cats on computers

Mine used to do that. The day I replaced the CRTs with LED flatscreens was hilarious as both cats jumped on top of the monitors and fell down the back unable to understand why the monitors had slimmed down drastically!

Microsoft moved the goalposts once. Will Windows 12 bring another shift?

Re: Bricking implies devices become useless

Yep, pretty much Microsoft's aim with the constant enshitification of Windows.

Commodore OS 3 is the loudest Linux yet

Re: 37.85G ISO

37.85G? Crikey, sounds like everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink!

Assassin's Creed maker faces GDPR complaint for forcing single-player gamers online

Did you even read the article properly? Or are you just a shill for Ubisoft?

Asia reaches 50 percent IPv6 capability and leads the world in user numbers

Re: You know what I'm gonna say, Reg

Just like Vermin Mediocrity!

Europe hits Meta, Apple with €700M in fines for flouting DMA

Fine

I think they should fine these companies using the chessboard and grains of rice principle. Starting at 1 penny (or cent, it doesn't matter which), it would bankrupt them within 2 months of non-compliance.

Free Blue Screens of Death for Windows 11 24H2 users

Re: "it clearly has its hands full"

The hands are too busy holding the guns that are continuously shooting at the feet!

Windows Recovery Environment update fails successfully, says Microsoft

Re: You might see the following error message – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE

Yes, unless it's after you've wiped every shred of Windows from your PC and installed Linux instead!

The Reg translates the letter in which Oracle kinda-sorta tells customers it was pwned

With the plummeting stock markets...

...maybe it's time to invest in popcorn shares.

Microsoft lists seven habits of highly effective Windows 11 users

Re: we're not sure their presence counts as a "tip."

The whole thing is a complete "tip" - as in, it should be thrown on one and forgotten about.

Re: My hot tip

"Oh, come on, Windows 11 isn't all that intrusive once you remove it completely."

FTFY

Legal clock ticking for Microsoft over alleged software license abuses

Looks like...

...Microsoft's usual "wait it out and hope it goes away" strategy is going to come back and bite them very nicely in the bum. However, in terms of $$ it's peanuts to them, so let's hope the EU have the guts to make it hurt more than just a few peanuts for a change.

China hits back at America with retaliatory tariffs, export controls on rare earth minerals

Samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium...

...have all just turned into unobtainium.

Bill Gates unearths Microsoft's ancient code like a proud nerd dad

Re: The Moral of the Story

Hah, you beat me to it.

"We coded day and night for the two months to create the software we had said already existed."

And they've been doing the same ever since!

UK threatens £100K-a-day fines under new cyber bill

Re: a requirement?

Bloody essential, more like!

If there's any chance a minister actually knows the slightest smidgen about what they are in charge of, there could be the impending horror that they may have "ideas" of their own and make an even bigger dogs bollocks of the whole affair than if they knew nothing!

Keep* 'em ignorant, I say!

* For most of them, that's not a problem as they have never reduced their full 100% ignorance quotient since birth. It comes with the territory!

Specsavers takes off the Oracle glasses, sees better ERP options

Let's hope...

...they can see their way out of the Orrible/Oracle mess!

Windows 11 adds auto-recovery, kills offline setup loophole

Re: very first version contained malicious features

From memory, I can't recall Windows 1.x having anything resembling a feature at all!

Microsoft to mark five decades of Ctrl-Alt-Deleting the competition

They used to make good keyboards. I'm still using a 1999-vintage Internet Keyboard Pro (the version that came with both a PS2 and USB connection).

However, in general, their software sucks (though the current PowerToys has quite a lot of good features).

Tech trainer taught a course on software he'd never used and didn't own

Re: staying awake

I was on a TOPS course (Skillcentres - remember them?) in Chelmsford back in the early 1980s doing a Radio/TV/Electronics course. The lecturer spent one warm afternoon droning through some technical stuff that was sending everyone to sleep. He was lecturing from just in front of the bench I was sitting at. There happened to be a TV remote control on the bench so, to everyone else's amusement, I started aiming the remote at the lecturer and pressing the OFF switch continuously. Once he realised that everyone was chuckling, he stopped to see what I was doing. He did get the joke and brought his lecture to a halt a few seconds later to everyone's relief.

Aardvark beats groundhogs and supercomputers in weather forecasting

Re: I use the Golden Gate Bridge.

Yes, I live in a mostly boring flat area (Norfolk) though, as I live on one of the more bumpier parts, I can either get a clear view of the Norwich Southern Bypass as it passes over the river or not depending on the weather (or, in summer, possibly the local trees).

One of my cats will bury herself underneath the top covers on my bed if it is or is going to be cold. Not exactly forecasting but probably as good as any aardvark that I know of!

HP Inc settles printer toner lockout lawsuit with a promise to make firmware updates optional

Re: Update optional?

As soon as I heard about the possibility, I disabled automatic updates on my printer. I will only reenable it when there is a proven ability of "downgrading" to an earlier version of the firmware.

Weeks with a BBC Micro? Good enough to fix a mainframe, apparently

Re: "I think that transducer has incorrect coefficients"

He probably could have said, "I think we should reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" and I bet no one would have been any the wiser!

Microsoft wouldn't look at a bug report without a video. Researcher maliciously complied

Re: MS Powertoy

Yes, I use it often, though I can't understand how Microsoft managed to let some actually useful software out into the wild. I thought that was against MS company policy!

They want a video?

I'd send them this.

Don't want Copilot app on your Windows 11 machine? Install this official update

Re: Would you care to share how one uninstalls copilot?

One finds a reputable Internet search engine (i.e. NOT Google!) into which one enters the phrase windows 11 uninstall copilot. Perusing the results should enable one to achieve one's requirements!

Official HP toner not official enough after dodgy update, say users

Re: Hoover, Candy, Hotpoint, Whirlpool etc

Oh yeah, and aren't Indesit (or, more appropriately, In-De-Shit) part of that unholy alliance?

Windows 11 adoption picking up speed, but older sibling still ahead

Hopefully! I want to know how big a boat of Windows 11 refuseniks I will be in when October comes!

Framework Desktop wows iFixit – even with the soldered RAM

Fast RAM / Slow RAM

Maybe they should have allowed the ability to add extra RAM that doesn't work quite as fast. This has shades of the old Slow/Fast RAM in the Amiga, though that was for a different reason to do with the CPU sharing memory with the custom chips which made it slower for the CPU to access.

Are you cooler than ex-Apple design guru Sir Jony Ive?

Re: because he was prepared to listen to everyone

Peel's taste in music was amazingly wide. I even remember being totally gobsmacked one evening hearing him play Sheena Easton's 9-To-5 on his Radio 1 show in between things like the Fall, Killing Joke and the Only Ones. He said that he had absolutely no idea why he liked 9-to-5 but he did and so he played it!

I also remember him playing a band that a friend of mine was in - Silent Noise - and, a little later on, he let them mime to it when he was doing a gig at the UEA!

As Amazon takes over the Bond franchise, we submit our scripts for the next flick

Re: I suppose there could be worse buyers than Amazon

Yeah - HP, there would be a 15-minute, muzak-filled gap between each scene of the film.

Re: Live and A.I.

Fantastic - though it does need a lot more obligatory nookie at every opportunity!