Posts by Spanners

Cloudflare beats patent troll so badly it basically gives up

We need a defenition of "patent"

Patents were originally to allow the inventors of a device or idea to benefit from it for a while. A good example was obstetric forceps,

Over the 20th century, this changed into something that stopped other people using an idea at all. An example is how oil companies used them to prevent Electric Vehicles from catching on.

By the end of the 20th century, This moved into a mobile telephone manufacturer using them to cut down competition (don't innovate, litigate).

This only ever delayed progress. The forceps are now available to whoever needs them, EVs are selling in ever increasing numbers and, outside the USA, that brand of smartphone is mainly used by the uninformed with too much money (expect downvotes from iFans here)

What should be done? Firstly, patents should be returned to their initial length - was that 17 years?

Secondly, that period should only be patents still owned by the individuals who created them. Any patent that is owned by a corporation should automatically be halved in length. Any that were owned from their start should never even get to the full length.

Finally, any patent troll that loses an attempt should automatically be fined 100 times what they were suing for as a minimum or a minimum % of their annual turnover - whichever is greater,

Now Dell salespeople must be onsite five days a week

Re: The stupidity of such action is impressive

I think a lot of us in user support have seen things that you can's see from home.

"Of course the computer is plugged in! I'm not stupid!

What's that plug having down in front of your screen?

"I don't know. I'm not a computer expert!"

It is much less common now but there used to be people who were proud of being handless with computers. There are still those who really are...

Re: The stupidity of such action is impressive

So they lose 20% of staff and over 21% of the work done. This is called poor economics

The stupidity of such action is impressive

Working in IT support, a lot of my job can not be done from home. Simply put, I can't give you a new keyboard if I am not there.

Apparently, it is really annoying to poor managers that their staff are more productive when somewhere away from them. I have noticed that people do longer hours when they don't spend 30 minutes each way commuting. Businesses benefit from people having fewer distractions and lower costs. The only people who lose out are office landlords!

However, poor quality managers feel insecure because people work better without them messing things up. Senior managers read this as things not working and try and "fix" it by mandating a 100% RTO.

Heating bills etc go up, productivity goes down, commute times and associated pollution increase. Everyone loses!

Recall the Recall recall? Microsoft thinks it can make that Windows feature palatable

That sounds like malware to me

Put some unverified images on your PC that claim to be screenshots.

Take a few pictures of you doing confidential stuff.

Act all surprised when these images are sent to third parties.

Perhaps they would like to encrypt your data files too?

Apple quietly removed 60 more VPNs from Russian app store, researchers claim

Shouldn't they get in trouble for that

If businesses do business with the Russians, - sell cars, or anything else, buy oil etc they can be found guilty of breaching sanctions.

Surely this sort of thing should be covered by these rules?

The future everyone wanted – in-car ads tailored to your journey and passengers

Car manufacturers and patents

If you believe the stories, US car & oil companies kept buying up patents any burying them from the 1950s onwards.

Ford could be carrying on the tradition.

1. Think of an appallingly bad idea.

2. Develop it

3. Patent it so nobody else can do it

4. Sit secure in the knowledge that you have saved lives and sanities!

As a late baby boomer, I am still hopeful for the future

If every PC is going to be an AI PC, they better be as good at all the things trad PCs can do

Re: Hamster wheels?

I had to tell it that the register was a website but quite funny!

EV sales hit speed bump as drivers unplug from the electric dream

Most of those reasons are ir3ellevant

The range is fine. My commute to work etc is 11 miles. A range over 200 miles would be very adequate.

The relevant one is the excessive cost. People in houses around me can afford the poor build quality of Teslas but I can't!

Give me something well built for a decent price and I will be fine on a 65 mile range, I can charge it every few days! So it might be expensive to replace a battery. 666,000 miles divided by a few hundred per week will outlast any petrol powered one by a good margin

Microsoft closes Windows 11 upgrade loophole in latest Insider build

Re: So,

The big corporates will submit as usual. Just, not quite so many as last time.

Linux will remain a fully functional alternative for 99% of uses but the pressure to be an obedient serf will keep up

Re: Upgrades?

It may be a mistake and even a crime.

It is however profitable for MS and their friends.

Client tells techie: You're not leaving the country until this printer is working

They should have either ended the contract

Or they could have just failed to renew it!

Re: Bo(e)ing?

I had a lovely trip to the USA on a KC135. Various others from my unit held their cameras over the window in the floor and took pictures that they considered scary. I had a lovely nap on the bench there!

I flew a lot as a child and never got a window in the floor like that!

NASA pushes decision on bringing crew back in Starliner to the end of August

Re: Pretty soon you'll be able to pick up a shitty adapter at the local convenience store

If you were from the USA. you'd never know as they seem to have an alternative meaning to that too,

Re: Pretty soon you'll be able to pick up a shitty adapter at the local convenience store

"Freedom loving corporations"

That must be the most counter intuitive oxymoron I have seen this year!

The USA has got to where it is today in spite of corporations and corporate lawyers and the insane idea of IP which is the most likely reason for this incompatibility,

Is Lenovo a blind spot in US anti-China security measures?

The real reason

The real reason behind the US assault on Chinese technology has absolutely nothing to do with security.

It was entirely about stopping companies like Huawei from racing ahead of anything the US can produce. It is pretty pathetic that the UK joined that sham. "We don't want Chinese companies evolved in 5g because we are sure that companies from the land of the (very un)free could get rich from it instead.

Perhaps the US can't make enough laptops of that standard and they know that this protectionism will be even more obvious?

Would you rather buy space broadband from a billionaire, or Communist China?

Will they allow VPNs?

I expect China to do do some DNS fiddling and traffic control, in the same way I expect Musk to. Both are hugely intolerant of ideas they disagree with. It will be easy enough to note where the traffic comes from so everyone can limit locations etc just like he does but I would always want what I am doing - ie criticise fascists - to be hidden from them.

Actually I do so little political stuff that they probably wouldn't care but I would want the ability to use a VPN of my choice as a basic.

Users rage as Microsoft announces retirement of Office 365 connectors within Teams

Re: A shower of shite

Is there aciiart for poo?

The Clacktop: A Thinkpad Yoga with a mechanical keyboard

"Tiny laptops"

Before smarphoines appeared, phones were getting smaller and less useable all the time. Now they get thinner instead and the first thing I do when I get a new one is to order a wallet/case for it.

I do have an unusually small laptop - a Lenovo Duet Chromebook but the battery standby is well over a week and usage is almost 8 hours.

China and the EU agree to consultations over EV anti-subsidy investigation

Something both sides say

"It's not subsidy or dumping if we do it..."

A thump with the pointy end of a screwdriver will fix this server! What could possibly go wrong?

Worst for who?

The worst damage I have seen done with a screwdriver was to themselves.

the second worst was to the person they were working with.

Screwdrivers, jewellers, normal little electrical and even woodworking-like ones have very small ends that become quite good at stabbing!

Because there were sharp edges in many PCs, I bet many people are very up-to-date with their tetanus shots but lots of people stab themselves when misusing them.

Life probably became safer with the introduction of electric ones. I never harmed myself with a screwdriver. I did drop an electric one on my foot though!

BOFH: Come on down to the dunge– erm … basement

An entirely different matter of scale from me.

I have a USB floppy drive, a USB Zip drive and a load of discs.

In comparison, I don't count.

Google thinks AI can Google better than you can

The first step in searching is to filter out the advertising garbage.

I have a sneaking suspicion that an important step of AI is to make it harder to avoid.

BOFH: Smells like Teams spirit

Re: Nice try

They are also keen to get us to understand that just because we bought and paid for something, we don't actually own it.

Microsoft thinks bundles are great and customers love them

Re: Security?

If security was a consideration, it would mean reconsidering batting anything from MS.

If security was the top consideration, it would mean ruling out anything from any US megacorporation.

As that is not going to happen, security is not important for many.

London Clinic probes claim staffer tried to peek at Princess Kate's records

Re: "not being able buy a meat pie with a credit card"

Being an engineer, I like 355/113 pieces in mine.

The UK Digital Information Bill: Brexit dividend or data disaster?

When referring to government actions

It would be a good idea to use the appropriate punctuation with their "reforms" as they are not any such thing.

Dictionary.com top 3 definitions of the word are

1. the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc.:

2. to change to a better state, form, etc.; improve by alteration, substitution, abolition, etc.

3. to cause (a person) to abandon wrong or evil ways of life or conduct.

I have yet to see a "reform" from Westminister that does any of those things. It seems to mean more "weaken" or enfeeble. Consider the actions over the last decade+ upon the economy, employment law and so on when they "reformed" those. This is just more of the same.

Britain enters period of mourning as Greggs unable to process payments

It was CMOT Dibbler

All you can get now is rat on a stick.

AI models show racial bias based on written dialect, researchers find

Why would people write in dialect anyway.

When I write, I write in what is seen as "standard" in this country.

When I speak, it can often be less so.

Why would I write with an accent? Sometimes I may use regionalisms in written form but not generally in a CV or a work report.

BOFH: I get locked out, but I get in again

Re: ChatGPT

Gemini seems to know even more about him!

Re: Swopping Locks

That reminds me of when I was in shared accommodation.

A lad used to chain his bike on the bannisters at the bottom.

Every morning, he would find it hanging by the back wheel from the top of the bannisters.

After a while he muttered that someone must know his (3 digit) code.

I showed him how to open it without the code because those, grey metal locks with the 3 brass number rings are hopeless.

Students...

Nevada sues to deny kids access to Meta's Messenger encryption

We know they are lying, so...

Why have they a particular interest in spying on children?

Cutting kids off from the dark web – the solution can only ever be social

Re: Root causes?

They still banned Tom & Jerry!

I thought they banned the, rather racist, portrayal of the maid.

Jet engine dealer to major airlines discloses 'unauthorized activity'

Passports

I still say that an employer does not need a scan of an employees passport. It needs to know

If they have one

What countries.

Expiry date

Any endorsements (like not allowed to come back here).

This would involve showing it to HR so they can look.

I think some countries have rules that nobody is allowed to copy or scan them. That, obviously, doesn't stop immigration functionaries doing just that but it should stop employers.

SAP hits brakes on Tesla company car deal

Re: I doubt SAP buy cars at all

Not in Germany it won't.

Those things are designed to be lethal to pedestrians, cyclists and motorbike riders.

Probably not too popular anywhere in the developed world.

Techie climbed a mountain only be told not to touch the kit on top

What percentage?

We all know that a power cycle cures a lot of problems but what percentage and does it differ depending on what sort of kit?

I suspect it is higher for desktop level stuff, PCs etc than servers but they don't let me near them much!

Return to Office mandates boost company profits? Nope

Why then?

...our findings do not support the argument that managers impose mandates because they believe RTO increases firm values...

So what was their real reason(s)? They don't feel it makes you a better worker.

It has been known for years that WFH makes people more productive, It lowers company costs, electrical bills, rent etc.

It seems to be some sort of race to prove that companies see employee satisfaction as a negative. Does this mean that we don't have it quite so bad on this side of the pond?

I know that a certain Tory knight dislikes it but JRM is surely a self-parody?

Akira ransomware gang says it stole passport scans from Lush in 110 GB data heist

I'm sure

Long ago, I was told that it was against the law for employers to scan things like passports and driving licences.

As it was twentysomething years ago, is it possible that the current government changed the rules?

Or am I mis-remembering?

WTF? Potty-mouthed intern's obscene error message mostly amused manager

Or "disnae" as they say where I come from.

(Not sure where to put the apostrophe in it though.)

Elon Musk made 1 in 3 Trust and Safety staff ex-X employees, it emerges

One problem

Musk has the, common in the US, misconception that free speech includes hate speech, bullying, racism and so on.

I have free movement in my country but that free movement does not give me the right to abuse that freedom by wandering around hitting people, driving at 99 mph or waving my favourite body part out the window.

Do you see the similarity?

Not even poor Notepad is safe from Microsoft's AI obsession

Sounds like a job for...

Open Source?

Someone must already have written an OSS equivalent of notepad. It never caught on because there was already something perfectly suitable in Windows already. I wonder what.

Google to start third-party cookie cull for 30 million Chrome users

If I can stay in no groups?

Will that stop it downloading rubbish?

(Whatever I have not asked for is specifically unwanted rubbish.)

‘I needed antihistamine tablets every time I opened the computers’

Re: These stories are crazy

Why would anyone wilfully place any kind of kit in a public area like that?

I suspect input from the Department of Bright Ideas - often full of accountants and professional suit wearers, both proud if their IT illiteracy.

CLIs are simply wizard at character building. Let’s not keep them to ourselves

you could buy (for a reassuringly high price)

I have never found anything remotely reassuring about a high price. I have been doing some mental gymnastics and the only example I can come up with is a spare part for a Rolls Royce is probably either expensive or fake.

I cannot think of many other examples and none in IT.

Superuser mostly helped IT, until a BSOD saw him invent a farcical fix

Floppy

I used to get students. "My dissertation was on this, but it's gone!"

I think I would get about half of them. Sometimes off the floppy, sometimes from other places and a couple of times by OCR'ing a draft.

The funniest one was he had lost an opening photograph of his place of education. I used a well known Photoshop alternative. I had to replace whatever mess was at the front by extending the brickwork. Apparently, later, someone asked him why he had bricked up his university front entrance!

Doom is 30, and so is Windows NT. How far we haven't come

Re: No imagination any more

I get the offer, whichever one I am using.

If I use the imperceptibly new version I get asked if I want to switch back and vice versa.

"lunch-time Quake sessions"

I remember coming across an article on how they did this (?flood networking?). I showed the article to some of our techs to explain to me and they immediately stopped doing it.

Cybercrooks book a stay in hotel email inboxes to trick staff into spilling credentials

"May only work in Windows"

That should immediately ring an alarm!

The thing that Windows, famously, does best is run viruses etc.

If I ever got a message containing such a comment, I would open it on a Raspberry Pi or some other unimportant device that would not run anything like them (I hope).

Google hopes to end tsunami of data dragnet warrants with Location History shakeup

Re: If you are up to no good or just protesting

...at least use a dumb phone...

So they just ask the phone companies who are more than happy to "help".

...non-identifiable phones (sims) so while the phones are tracked there is nothing to connect them with the phone unless they were apprehended with the phone ...

You should watch some shows like NCIS. Even if you pay cash for your burner phone, "they" know what phone you bought, where and when...

...Carrington event...

This is your best hope.

You don't get what you don't pay for, but nobody is paid enough to be abused

Re: Jedes Schrift'l ist ein Gift'l

Only that you can't write and say "ass" any more in the United States of America due to the extreme Political Correctness

In the more developed parts of the English-speaking world, we do not say "ass" to indicate what one sits on. The correct word is spelt A R S E. I hope spacing it out avoids some filters.