Posts by Richard Jones 1

Microsoft 365 boosts prices in 2026 … to pay for more AI and security

I just wish 365 would STOP losing documents and denying they ever existed!

Trump derails Chinese H20 GPU sales, forcing Nvidia to eat $5.5B this quarter

Rephrasing required?

Perhaps the certainty is misplaced, this might be better "in effect for the indefinite future." as 'until another U turn'!

London's poor 5G blamed on spectrum, investment, and timing of Huawei ban

Re: Pointless

When I step outside my home, I can see the buildings in Canary Wharf yet 4G service is so rubbish I must use my home Wi-Fi to have even voice calls on the mobile. Why pay more for a same as slow to nothing service?

Google binning SMS MFA at last and replacing it with QR codes

I can still, just about, remember my multiple PINs and have an encoded version recorded for 'difficult times'. However, my mobile service is unreliable, unless I can piggyback onto a Wi-Fi system. Because my fingers are old, arthritic, worn and suffer with peripheral neuropathy so they are frequently numb, using a mobile is pure pain and no reward. I have to sit down to use the damned devil device at-all. Doing anything financial with a mobile app, or is it a recalcitrant ape, is the first cousin of impossible, as well as unwise. As for internet shopping, the pure crap that rains down makes it an exercise in the unacceptable, I do not have the time to waste or the energy to sustain the crap clearance. As for QR codes, why and how are they so superior? A card reader is an easier, but still awful solution where possible for me.

Cybercriminal devoid of boundaries gets 10-year prison sentence

Genitals Groped or Was That Fantasies?

Rather than grope him, full on removal, without anaesthetic might have been a suitable interim 'treatment' in the minds of some. Perhaps it would cure his fantasies.

Huawei's farewell to Android isn't a marketing move, it's chess

Re: Can't understand the apps

Sounds like a disincentive scheme to do away with the cinema, but what is a cinema anyway? I thought that they went out shortly after the ark gave up.

Mega supermarket spots stock discrepancy of tens of millions amid ERP system migration

Re: Just slap fines on store managers ..

Is that not the Post Office Horizon way?

Cancer patient forced to make terrible decision after Qilin attack on London hospitals

Re: Justice

Shame they would have to skip the anaesthetic stage.

Microsoft makes it harder to avoid OneDrive during new Windows 11 installs

No Backup Via My Snailband connection

Given the upload speed of my snail-band connexion, thank you, EE/BT, backing up anything outside my network would take several lifetimes, or an act of some very strong deity. I shall not be falling into the trap, in spite of the MS stupid plague spot suggestion.

UK agriculture department slammed for paper pushing despite tech splurges

Re: Recruitment freeze

Perhaps they lost the papers behind the filing cabinet?

DEF CON is canceled! No, really this time – but the show will go on

Re: Ugh, Vegas

Or just watch the suckers fall.

Re: Ugh, Vegas

That was my take-out. When you know the odds, it is not you benefitting, so standback.

How hard is your network really, comms watchdog asks telcos

Hard Was Never Easy, But Sometimes It Must Be faced

The idiots can be such premium-grade morons, that they take fibre optic cables. However, the disrupter list is long, so it needs some management. Power-loss is a catastrophe. It gives rise to many other issues; as a result, recovery might be seriously compromised. Dead systems do not respond to control signals since they are offline. Old standby batteries are a nightmare failure, just itching to cause havoc. Seeing a 3~4-hour battery die in less than 10 minutes, is ‘discomforting’. Because something is challenging, does not mean it can be ignored, without first identifying issues, no efforts to stabilise the situation can follow.

Digital revolution at HMRC left 99,000 UK taxpayers on hold over five-day fiasco

Re: I gave up phoning and sent them a letter. I got no reply.

Do not wish for people dealing with you from the government, I have been trying to sort out probate with the pro-bait clowns. They keep asking about basic entries on the return. It appears they have not the slightest idea of what the form requires or why. Still they work for the 'civil service' so dismal quality is their stock-in-trade.

Catholic clergy surveillance org 'outs gay priests'

Re: Prigs

Sorry, I can only give you one up vote.

Four top euro carriers will use phone numbers to target ads and annoy Google & Facebook

So, the telco gets the cream, what would the punter get? What come out of the other end, I guess.

Why would anyone opt in for a hosing with advertising?

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

Physical Methods Trump Signs in Any Language

For critical, 'Do not unplug' equipment, we resorted to using specialised plugs and sockets, that were hard to unplug and into whose sockets, only the specialised plugs could be inserted. That defeated the cleaners and sundry hardware users. It did not stop one determined PC user who inserted his floppy, (with a month's work on it), into an off limits machine that ran processes 24 hours a day. It used the floppy drive as a sneaker-net output device. He tried to run what he wanted, the PC took over, trashed his floppy and overwrote it with the machine's process data.; lesson learned, there was no way back.

Boss broke servers with a careless bit of keyboarding, leaving techies to sort it out late on a Sunday

Re: "an on-prem email server"

Not so easy to stop the hardware with an errant keyboard, either.

FTX disarray declared 'unprecedented' by exec who cleaned up after Enron

Re: LOL'd at this one

Are you suggesting M. Mouse, D. Duck, and sundry others were not real and fit and proper financial controllers? Perhaps you were right after all.

Windows 11 runs on fewer than 1 in 6 PCs

Re: As a Win11 user myself, don't bother if you don't have to!

I have just moved from 10 to 11. At first, it was a buggy experience, but removal of OEM add-ons cured that and left the PC feeling much more spirited. After several days, I am finding it just like 10, but faster and more responsive. I have not yet explored the new 'features', but teams appears totally pointless and is probably not long for this land.

I should say that everyone's needs, uses and 'mileage' will be different, so their experience will not be the same as mine.

Re: As a Win11 user myself, don't bother if you don't have to!

Perhaps walks slowly, might be more accurate?

Hong Kong wants to be the world’s home for virtual assets

This Is A Joke?

I can think of no one in their right mind who would give Hong Kong, sorry PRC, the time of day with their money.

Amazon hit with $1bn claim that secretive Buy Box algorithm screws shoppers

Re: And this is news to just about nobody?

Please try to read page 1 of the fraudster's hand book, "list something for less than anyone else, and hope orders flood in with cash". When it goes pear-shaped, scarper. If some other seller list the item, why should they honour the dodgy dealer's price? What ever happened to Caveat-Emptor, buyer beware?

Wearables sales slacken as the novelty wears off

Re: An $800 watch

Or check all those other clocks against your watch, as I and many others do. Mine is a far less than £800 item that has yet to be recharged or have its battery replaced. With a quick to read, correction mentally absorb, analogue display, it is so much faster to read than those slow read digital ones.

'Last man standing in the floppy disk business' reckons his company has 4 years left

The other way round?

I took the rechargeable battery from a 8086 and put it into the central heating controller as the old battery would no longer charge. That was before the internet accessed parts, that were impossible to find in normal channels. It ran the system for the next 10 to 15 years.

EU puts smart device manufacturers on the hook for cyber security

Re: I can understand...

It is rather better to have a limited quantity of quality, than a mess of total crap, as we have at the moment.

Re: Does that include TeleScreens?

Sale of Goods act should apply, demand a replacement as not of sale quality and not fit for purpose.

Micron wants tax breaks for '$160b' Texas chip fab plant

Oops, I misread The Headline

The headline said it all, I misread the header and wondered why the French President wanted a US subsidy to build a fab.

Black Hat and DEF CON visitors differ on physical risk management

Re: Not all black and white

I understand your position; as a 76-year-old, with hearing loss and hearing aids that are often better at picking up some background noises, conversations in noisy places might as well be the sound of heavy rain or other white noise. My immune system may also be suffering age effects, just like my hearing. My wife has metastatic cancer, so has been trying to shield as much as frequent health appointments allow. She went down with Covid-19, and I ended up playing nurse and the treatment gofer. Happily, I did not catch the bug, perhaps my immune system is not so bad after all. As a result of concerns, I have avoided crowded places as far as possible, masked up, and accepted that conversations are now for others to have. Now, I much prefer the written word, over whatever is spoken. (This includes watching video or TV where I find the text option essential, though often hilarious, 'London's mare' anyone?.) Yes, it is socially limiting, but so is bad hearing. However, I neither want to spread, nor catch, what has been a killer illness for too many. I have lived through other viral events unscathed, and seen the impacts of such as measles, whooping cough, polio, cancer, et al., that have cost the lives of some that I knew, and crippled others. I will do what I can to avoid that fate befalling other potential victims and keep my conscience clear.

South Korean regulator worried Apple, Google, may be working around app store payment choice law

Never Used an App Store Yet

It is impossible to understand why people clutter up a mobile with unwanted junk. I have never purchased anything from a so-called app store, why would I? The stores demonstrated what a pit of vipers they were years ago, with kids running up monstrous bills. So, had a simple rule, never I put any financial instrument near them. I use different cards as the humour takes me, when paying for things, so, sorry no need for juggling with a 'payment system' on a mobile either. My mobile is stuck away in a pocket, unlikely to get dropped, or grabbed, even now, it probably does not know what a sunny day looks like. Do I need new systems to make wasting money easier, why would I?

Microsoft warns Windows 10 patch broke printing for some

Re: A traditional problem

So, just advancing the paperless cause, then.

Demand for smartphones is drying up

Re: The telcos are upset

I have a handset that is said to be 5G ready, but will EE offer 5G where I live and go? They struggle to provide 4G and reliable voice unless I use Wi-Fi. My handset is about a year old, I became fed up with my marginal Motorola after years of use, any slower, and it would have gone backwards. All I did was rare texts and voice calls with an activity monitor thrown in. Now there are verification codes for doing almost everything, Current mobiles get cluttered up with applications to support this disruption, but once a handset can meet that need, what else is there? Mobile internet is dreadful, while I block most of the stupid advertising dross on my desktop, I have not ventured into the wacky-races field of doing so with the mobile. So, every attempt to use the internet is shut down by adverts for junk no one in their right mind could ever want.

Microsoft's latest security patch troubles Windows 11 users

Re: No Problems for My Windows 11 Installation

Perhaps the answer is to use unsupported hardware, so far, I have seen no Windows 11 issues.

I did not have any issues with Windows 10 on any other machine either.

US EV drivers won't be able to choose vehicle safety alert sounds

Re: Alert Sounds

I am hard of hearing and my hearing aids are of limited benefit, draining down to zero benefit, when a moving object is too quiet. You do not have to a cyclist to need warnings.

Smart thermostat swarms are straining the US grid

Re: fully manual

That has not been my experience. Our system has been running for about 6 years when I guiltily decided to try to get it serviced for the first time*. It cools in summer and heats in winter, and is left to its own devices. It did ice up once, surprisingly during a cold, almost 100% humidity day. A brief rest and a wash down of the heat exchanger and 30 minutes later it was back to life again. The airflow might have been affected by the clutter of air carried muck, leaves, insects, dust, etc. that had stuck to the heat exchanger.

*Three different dates were agreed with three different service suppliers, only the third came along, the others just disappeared.

Even better, the dumb 'smart' you use does not rely on a soon-to-be cancelled remote server like, let me see, could it be Hive?

Pentester says he broke into datacenter via hidden route running behind toilets

The Security Was Possibly Via a Screwdriver

Often, those panels are only held by screws, though, in this case possibly nothing so secure, as he had bidirectional access. Possibly, only spring clips were used to ensure easy access in the event of an urgent service problem.

Massive telecom outage in Japan kicks 40 million mobile users offline

Re: No Smartphone Day

You, rate the chance that high? What would slug-bait (meta) do without all the cashflow?

Google to pay $90m to settle lawsuit over anti-competitive behavior on the Play Store

Making The Unusable, More Unusable

I cannot be bothered to venture into the snake pit that is app stores. So, other than a tiny number of Google's own apps, and a few from others such as a bank or two, I have avoided the rip-off activities of the hype vendors. Do they really have anything that would enrich my life more than they cost?

FBI warning: Crooks are using deepfake videos in interviews for remote gigs

Re: How to stop it in it's tracks.

That one is easy, they will state they are some variation of gender variation and then claim harassment, denial of rights and so on.

Not much of this actually from 'China anymore,' says Northern Light Motors boss

Re: Question

I would say yes, the French also have so different vehicles for the same reasons.

Re: Question

Licensing, taxing, possibly insurance, in some niche cases the fun factor of being different.

Beijing-backed attackers use ransomware as a decoy while they conduct espionage

Diversification

Some interesting points for any business hoping to survive. Diversification needs to apply to both the nature of the business in terms of having a number of profitable lines, but also having a diverse population of customers, or at least those supplying you with cash. Sometimes a low margin, mass product that is sold to huge numbers of different customers can work, if it carries almost all the business overhead. This leave speciality products to carve their own niches while needing to support little mass overhead. A great model for an espionage enterprise, though in such a case the master prize come from the niche product, neat.

US senators seek ban on sale of health location data

I Wonder What The Fuddy Duddies Really Want?

Just send all the unwanted, undesired or unaffordable offspring to your nearest Supreme Court, aka Court of your Inferiors, injustice or nearest Republican fool, to raise them until they are gaol age.

One side effect of Roe vs Wade was said to be a reduction in criminals being produced, and hence gaol populations. Be careful what you force on the unwary.

Chinese 'Aoqin Dragon' gang runs undetected ten-year espionage spree

Re: Once again

Why do they need to know? After all, if you work on X or are involved in the Y department, there are possible generic hooks they can use. Otherwise, they might use the p0rn method, or the possible side interest, they do not care what they send out. Like the telephone scammers or text scammers who pepper the world with a grape shot of pure rubbish, hoping that the right fish will swallow the lure.

Mitsubishi Electric again admits to widespread quality control cheating

Re: Culture change

If they sell, X000000 units and one complaint comes in, a cover culture would probably step in and cover out the incident, 'sorry sir a rogue part was included, please have this totally new upgraded item for free. We will cover all reasonable costs of the downtime.'

Such things have happened in the past and no doubt will again.

Safari is crippling the mobile market, and we never even noticed

Re: Crap article

I have never had an Apple device, unless you count the one I had for a while from my employer. That convinced me I never wanted to buy such a slow, overpriced counter-intuitive device. Having never used one since and having only ever used a mix of Nokia and Android, I have never felt the need to stray. I find the mobile web a total waste of time. Screens filled with advertising dross, terrible presentation, lack of useful information and so on. Every addition to my mobile's capability has been supplied or free, so no one fleeces me from oh so useless 'apps', or should that be craps.

4G to dominate cellular IoT until 2028, when 5G takes over

It Would Be Nice if 4G Was Treliably Available

Any 'G' would be great. Reception is perhaps fine, if you have 10,000 neighbours in your sitting room in CityVille, but move a few metres outside that hellhole and the idea of reception becomes a memory. Broadband Wi-Fi can help inside homes, but that is hardly mobile 'G' is it?

Europe's GDPR coincides with dramatic drop in Android apps

What Point Costly Applications?

Is there any reason to buy an app, ever? I have never seen a need, add in the screen filling dross that plagues mobile web use already, and it appears that someone is actively campaigning to make mobile use unpleasant. I have a free Google application or two, and a few from banks/financial bodies for authentication, and that is about that. There is the point about possible market saturation, is there still something not already, served/abused/blanketed, delete as required?

Microsoft, Apple, Google accelerate push to eliminate passwords

Re: Upgrade!!!!

Where do I buy new fingers with ready to use, reliable fingerprints?