* Posts by jwatkins

32 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Sep 2009

Apple quietly admits 8GB isn't enough in 2024, M4 iMac to ship with 16GB as standard

jwatkins

Re: Just upgraded to Ventura!

I read that title as you having upgraded to Corel Ventura - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corel_Ventura :-)

Now Dell salespeople must be onsite five days a week

jwatkins

Re: Multiple reasons

Senior management paranoia?

Amazon CEO wants his staff back in the office full time

jwatkins

Re: Here we go

So... if Amazon (or whoever) said, "We've paid for all of this office space, so we need you to use it" - would that be OK?

The problem with hybrid working is that hardly anyone is in the office on Mondays/Fridays and the there is not a seat to be had on Wednesdays. The company then has to pay for "unused" desks - from corporate perspective a bad thing.

Apple owes billions in back taxes over Ireland state aid rule break

jwatkins

Re: This won't cost Apple a penny

More fool the IRS then!

Apple says if you want to ship your own iOS browser engine in EU, you need to be there

jwatkins

But the EU law only applies in the EU. So... in the rest of the world Apple only allows Safari and web developers still have to support it.

Software support chap survived breaking his customer

jwatkins

Re: 9Gb of unknown info wiped?

Yeah, I suspect it was more likely to be 9Mb.

China orders its telcos to rip and replace US chips with homegrown silicon by 2027

jwatkins

Opening skirmishes

The real trade war will only happen when the US government bans US companies from manufacturing in China ("because the manufacturers are inserting spyware in the hardware...")

HP customers claim firmware update rendered third-party ink verboten

jwatkins

Re: Resellers can also no longer offer alternatives

They don't seem to have done that with Amazon though?

UK government lays out plan to divert people's broken gizmos from landfill

jwatkins

Re: Easy or Expensive?

British Heart Foundation refused Dining Room chairs (but accepted the table) that had been re-covered without a fire-safety label. Men collecting it said this was because BHF was selling - so surely the solution is to sell the table and throw in the chairs with a BIG disclaimer label? They were even less impressed when I suggested removing the seat inserts.

CompSci teachers panic as Replit pulls the plug on educational IDE

jwatkins

Re: Where have all the grown ups gone ?

I'm fairly sure schools often buy chairs without requesting evidence on fit for purpose.

Meta's fix for teen online mental health? Hold Apple and Google responsible

jwatkins

Re: Support for a federal law? Eh? It already exists.

Google Family "controls" stop working when they are 13. They don't work if you have non-google.com/gmail.com accounts either.

California man's business is frustrating telemarketing scammers with chatbots

jwatkins

... and very confusing if you're not in Australia :-)

Most of UK agriculture dept's customer interactions are paper based

jwatkins

Re: Well

I suspect this is a result of buying software (with a support contract) rather than buying a capability which is supported and constantly upgraded as new requirements are needed. Oh, that sounds like in-house IT. Well... sometimes it is better if you DIY and pay enough to keep the brains in-house.

BOFH: Ah. Company-branded merch. So much better than a bonus

jwatkins

Re: AHH the good old USB

Of course the company policy is that USB sticks are banned on company equipment. AND security policy is always banging on about not accepting USB sticks from unknown sources...

Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wear its cape

jwatkins

The external cladding for a block of flats could be solar panels. Lots of surface area...

jwatkins

Re: Volcanoes ?

Aren't volcanoes where magma/lava/whatever is coming *up*, not down?

jwatkins

Re: I have been on about this since I was a teenager

It depends on which branch of Green you are talking to. Some of those greens actively *want* a societal collapse - maybe they think all those hollywood films of Apocalyptic/Dystopian futures are documentaries?

British intelligence recycles old argument for thwarting strong encryption: Think of the children!

jwatkins

Re: Child porn existed before the internet

Were they told it was an x-ray photograph?

Russia fines Google $374 million for letting the truth about Ukraine be told

jwatkins

The last two statements are a requirement for all governments, whatever their official political standing.

How one techie ended up paying the tab on an Apple Macintosh Plus

jwatkins

Re: "I thought MacWrite needed no explanation"

Your fax is not a Star Trek transporter - it is a remote copier - or did their photocopiers destroy the originals?

Behind Big Tech's big privacy heist: Deliberate obfuscation

jwatkins

We want your data so we can sell it (yes/no?)

Seems simple?

John Deere tractors 'bricked' after Russia steals machinery from Ukraine

jwatkins

Re: DRM and theft prevention

John Deere make cruise missiles as well?

Buying a USB adapter: Pennies. Knowing where to stick it: Priceless

jwatkins

Re: Lost dog pictures

Aren't hard drives sealed - if so how could there be any moisture inside to condense?

Is it broken yet? Is it? Is it? Ooh that means I can buy a sparkly, new but otherwise hard-to-justify replacement!

jwatkins

Re: Immortal

Sounds like a perfect excuse to replace FireOS with one of the Android clones?

Hybrid working? Buckle in, there's no turning back as survey takers insist: You can't make us go back

jwatkins

For every person who is more productive WFH, there is someone who just can't do it. Whether that ratio is 1:1, 5:1 or 1:5 I don't know...

Citibank accidentally wired $500m back to lenders in user-interface super-gaffe – and judge says it can't be undone

jwatkins

Note that the software is "Flexcube" (https://www.oracle.com/industries/financial-services/banking/flexcube-universal-banking/). Citi may have no say in the UI.

Recovery time objective missed by four weeks, but Parler is back online

jwatkins

Re: Who's the audience?

The problem is that you have two, opposing requirements:

* To allow anyone to say what they want, but they have to be identifiable (so they can be prosecuted under existing slander/libel/etc laws).

* To allow anonymous "whistle-blowing".

We can't have both.

Facebook and Google’s Australian pay-for-news nightmare finds a European admirer

jwatkins

Re: Trying To Make Websearches Useless?

Loads of "News" sites are so full of adds and refuse to load if you use ad-blockers.

Apple takes another swing at Epic, says Unreal Engine could be a 'trojan horse' threatening security

jwatkins

Re: Did Google back off?

Maybe in the next version iOS Safari will insist you use ApplePay? And since you can't use any other browser...

jwatkins

Re: "Apple would face incalculable harm"

Websites should use an approved government ID - what could possibly go wrong then?

QR-code based contact-tracing app brings 'defining moment' for UK’s 'world beating' test and trace system

jwatkins

Re: Paper is best

Slightly more information than the electoral register?

Gmail de-goodened by contact list glitch

jwatkins

Still down after 5pm..

Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML