Posts by NBCanuck

Why are PC webcams crap? Lenovo says it knows the reason

Required Milton quote

“If they take my stapler, I’ll have to, I’ll set the building on fire.”

BOFH: They say you either love it or you hate it. We can confirm you're going to hate it

Re: Jim and the long game

"I smell plans within plans. Is Jim a "Frenemy"?"

I suspected that too at first...that it was all means to get extra overtime to offset holiday expenses. Then I saw the words....."BRING THE MARMITE!"

BOFH: Where there is darkness, let there be a light

Bonus BOFH. Never question the reason!!!!

Omission?

I haven't figured out why the Boss was left out of the Beancounter's recent , uh.....education. Maybe it was because he was smart enough not to enter the Server Room and therefore demonstrated that he can be taught?

BOFH: But we think the UK tax authorities would be VERY interested in how we used COVID support packages

The tables have turned

"Going right back?" the PFY asks, raising an eyebrow. "Any dodgy expense or purchase?"

"You bet! If there's anything to find, we'll find it."

It was at this point I knew the Head Bean Counter was off the hook. The auditor? Not so much.

Crane horror Reg reader uses his severed finger to unlock Samsung Galaxy phone

Re: finger in glove

Haven't seen "Payday", but Mel Gibson takes lot of hammering in "Payback".

A cautionary tale of virtual floppies and all too real credentials

Re: Waddayamean "nowadays"?

You're right. Nowadays I wouldn't think about it....as in wouldn't consider giving it any though at all beyond forming the process required to say "Uh....no. Not happening".

Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced techie is indistinguishable from magic

Re: a GUI in the office was a dim and distant dream.

Heck, even Commodore 64 had a GUI by 1985.

GEOS, released in 1985, is a full blown operating system and graphical user interface for the Commodore 64 computer

A real loch mess: Navy larks sunk by a truculent torpedo

Re: Oops!

The safeties were not disabled because of any maneuvers. Torpedoes need a minimum run distance before they armed. After the Alpha fired Ramius closed the distance before the torpedoes could arm. It was to remove the minimum run distance that the safeties were removed.

BOFH: You brought nothing to the party but a six-pack of regret

Welcome back!

I've been going through BOFH withdrawal. Glad to have so many over a short period....and hoping to have them monthly again.

Consumer campaign to keep receiving printed till receipts looks like a good move – on paper

Receipt email address

I have a special gmail address that I use for all places where I have to put an email address, and use it for receipts as well. I check it monthly and am generally quite surprised that I don't see any companies that I am not familiar with, so looks like they hoard for their own lists as I don't see any signs that that address is being sold around.

FTC fines Facebook $5bn for making users believe they actually had control over their data

Re: strong criminal pentalties

"Jail for Zuck would be nice; at the very least a few hundred hours of community service."

But he likely thinks that what he does IS community service.

'We've done it, we've wasted further time!' Judge raps HP over Mike Lynch court scrutiny

Time Wasted = Billable Hours

There is no incentive to the lawyers to be expedient. The longer it takes them to win (or lose) the more money they make.

You're not Boeing to believe this, but... Another deadly 737 Max control bug found

Considering that "The safety of our airplanes is Boeing’s highest priority," is true, and also the level of scrutiny they are under right now, should Boeing not have caught this new error before submitting the aircraft for review by the FAA?

Methinks that they should be very, very thorough in their next set of tests. If it passes them and fails again with the FAA passengers will likely lose what little confidence they currently have.

....and yeah, another accident with more wrongful death suits would hurt them financially. At least they will pay attention to THAT.

Greatest threat facing IT? Not the latest tech giant cockwomblery – it's just tired engineers

Project timelines

Project timeline:

Stage 1 = 1 weeks

Stage 2 = 4 weeks

Stage 3 = 2 weeks.

TOTAL = 7 weeks

Now here is the math. If Stage 1 goes 2 weeks over (runs 3 weeks), then the total should go to 9 weeks. That should not ever mean that the project stays at 7 weeks and everyone should just work more to make up the time. I know that is usually not how it works, but it should not ever be the case.

Nope, we're stuffed, shrieks Apple channel as iPhone shipments enter a double-digit spiral

"CEO Tim Cook blamed dropping demand for iPhones in China and a new battery replacement programme for its worsening fortunes. And he cut the price of the mobes to try to widen their appeal. This strategy hadn’t worked as of Apple’s Q2 results for fiscal 2019, ended 30 March."

Damn consumers. Replacing a battery instead of buying a new phone.Why are they all being so unreasonable?

That being said....I have my first Android without a user-swapable battery (S9+). Still going strong after a year (day + usage) and this while using fast charging most of the time and left to charge overnight, but I'd still feel better if I could change out the battery myself when the time comes. Fast charging is great, but I'd still rather have a thicker phone with a 2 day batter life.

It's not your imagination: Ticket scalper bots are flooding the internet according this 'ere study

Outdoor concert

We have had a number of big outdoor concerts here is the past including once with The Rolling Stones and AC/DC as headliners. At one of the last shows (cannot remember who the headliner was but I'm thinking Bruce Springsteen) they released an additional five thousand tickets for sale in the week before the show. That must have wiped the smiles off a few scalpers faces. I'm sure a number were still holding tickets without a hope in hell of selling them.

Crash, bang, wallop: What a power-down. But what hit the kill switch?

Re: It took me years...

The only thing worse than a big red button is any button with a sign saying "Do not press". And if the button is also red and big? Isn't that just asking for trouble?

Canadians moot methods to embiggen moose monument and make Mac great again

Dildo Days

I was visiting Newfoundland and doing a scenic drive and came across the very small town of Dildo. I didn't actually notice any road signs showing the town name, rather my first sight was of a sign by a parking lot exclaiming "Dildo Day". It was a town fair/carnival for children and families and very wholesome, though I'm sure there were some very disappointed visitors "from away" as well.

Ouch, Apple! Plenty of iPhones stuck in tech channel. How many? That's a 'wild card'

Re: Apple boredom

With the exception of the passenger electric seat adjustment and the foot triggered hatch, all of the features you listed above are on my 2016 Cherokee. So you may not have had them on your 2017 but they were available.

Happy Thursday! 770 MEEELLLION email addresses and passwords found in yuge data breach

What sites?

So if my email address comes back as pwned how can I tell what site was compromised. I use unique passwords and there is no way I am going to type them all in.

Can your rival fix it as fast? turns out to be ten-million-dollar question for plucky support guy

"you need to keep really, really close tabs - and lots of comments - on the source otherwise it'll trample all over you."

I remember taking a programming course years ago (Pascal). The professor was constantly reminding us to document out code. At the time my documentation was pretty brief as it was obvious what everything did.

Yeah....

That was great when you were working on it and everything was fresh in your mind. I remember looking at my old printouts the following year when cleaning up and had trouble making sense of anything without analyzing all of the code. Lesson learned.

Remember....you aren't documentation the code for yourself, you are documenting it for "future you" and those who follow.

Attempt to clean up tech area has shocking effect on kit

Re: C

I live in the province of New Brunswick and have never seen a trigger lock here, or in neighboring Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island either. Nor have I encountered any of them in the state of Maine.

Re: most gas(petrol) station pump fires seem to be caused

...and it's probably not a good idea to use a lighter to see how full your tank is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yGmRx3ymWI

Brits pay £490m extra for mobes they already own – Citizens Advice

Mixed bag in Canada

The three big telecoms (Bell, Rogers, Telus) all have the monthly cost of the phone hidden in their monthly plan, but we do have options. There are subsidiary companies (Koodo for Telus, Fido for Rogers) that do it, what I condider, the right way.

Example: I am with Koodo and my bill clearly shows my plan fee and the amount of the phone cost sitting on my "tab". Each month I get charged $15 towards the tab and see the updated balance owing. The tabs are all set to have the phone paid off in 24 months. When that happens the tab charge just goes away.

From an accounting perspective it would seem that breaking out the charges would be better for allocating revenue. The purpose of bundling them together seems to be to trick people into paying more than they should.

FCC boss slams new Californian net neutrality law, brands it illegal

Re: That's irony for you

"I guess that must be what Trump likes about his rallies, where henchmen will eject anyone who isn't cheering with the rest!"

He hasn't yet taken to having his thugs threaten to have nay-sayers taken out and shot like another narcissist did about 70 years ago, but would he if he could?

Microsoft: You don't want to use Edge? Are you sure? Really sure?

Re: Dear Microsoft

Please BING off and take your POS browser with you.

There.....FTFY.

A decade on, Apple and Google's 30% app store cut looks pretty cheesy

Re: Since Fortnight is dodging the Google tax...

"Does this mean that Android users are getting a 15%-25% discount now? If not, it end up the users get fleeced at the same rate, but the money is just flowing into different pockets."

- If I recall correctly, part of the agreement with Apple for selling something through its app store is that it cannot be sold anywhere else for less. So according to that, the game developer may make more profit, but CANNOT sell for less.

As Corning unveils its latest Gorilla Glass, we ask: What happened to sapphire mobe screens?

Phone appearance

Phone manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure that their phone are sleek, slim and sexy. That is all great, but they are also so delicate that the first thing most users do is pack them in a case totally hiding over 50% of the phone, and bulking it up.

Why can't phones be made a bit bigger and tougher...with maybe room for a bigger battery while they are at it? There are still some "rugged" version out there, but they tend to go to the extreme. A nice consumer middle ground would be nice.

'Fibre broadband' should mean glass wires poking into your router, reckons Brit survey

Re: Same in Canada

I have a fiber service in Atlantic Canada (BellAlliant) and I have fiber to the premises - I know because I can see it coming into the house. They have Good, Better, and Best services. I am on Better and have 300Mbps up and down. I have tested and the promised rates are accurate.

California lawmakers: We swear on our avocados we'll pass 'strongest net neutrality protections' in America

Re: Hold on a minute....

@ jmch

"Isn't that how democracy is supposed to work?"

Yes, but wouldn't it be nice if the politician did it because it was his job and for the benefit of the people instead of motivated by his career ambitions?

'Plane Hacker' Roberts: I put a network sniffer on my truck to see what it was sharing. Holy crap!

Re: Insurance Black Boxes

"...saying they'd caught them doing around 100mph over a roundabout.

FTFY

I think I saw that video on YouTube. ;)"

I know exactly the video to which you referred. Good launch, but kinda failed to stick the landing.

Drug cops stopped techie's upgrade to question him for hours. About everything

Re: Entering New Zealand

A compost of managers.

Facebook caught up in court battle with Amazon and pals over 'ageist job ads' that targeted young

Facebook Age

With things as they are I'll never see a job add on Facebook. I entered my birth year as 1925 (with incorrect month and day as well). Of course now it is locked and I cannot change it, but I can live with that. It's not like I am going to provide then with any real personal info to confirm what they know about me.

....and yes, I'm kidding myself believing for even a moment that they don't know my real birth date.

'Incomprehensible failure' – Canada's $1bn Phoenix payroll IT fiasco torched by auditors

Project

You want us to deliver "X" . Sure....no problem.

You want high quality, fast delivery and you want it cheap? Pick two!

Police block roads to stop tech support chap 'robbing a bank'

Re: Must have been a quite impressive experience

"What about "hands up and start floating one foot above the floor"?"

Like the stance in Karate Kid? All tellers are now in full attack position!

Oh.....hovering a foot above the floor, not just with one leg raised. Not as much fun reading it that way. :-(

DIY device tinkerer iFixit weighs in on 15-month jail term for PC recycler

Seems pretty clear to me

So say you owned software that you distributed

1) free - via download from your official site

2) for $10 for a physical "branded" CD (to cover costs: manufacture/print/distribution)

In both of the above cases you controlled the content available from your "official" sources. If someone does the download they know the source. If they purchase a "branded" Cd, they know the source.

Now someone comes along and downloads from the official site, then burns off a few CDs and hands them out to friends. The CDs are not direct from the official source so there is now an element of risk as to what is on the CD. Maybe the person added a few "extras" (accidentally or intentionally), but they certainly cannot hold you accountable for any malware on the CD that is not on your official version.

Microsoft has contacts and deals in place to ensure that the company making its CDs are only loading approved content. If buddy has someone in China make the CD then who knows what else may be on there. By putting official MS and Dell logos on it they make it look as though these are from a trustworthy source. Not sure people would feel as secure using "Bob's computer recovery CD".

Not saying that MS has the best reputation, but I can see why they would not want this. As several people have stated: it was the decision to "brand" this and pass it off an an official copy that was the issue.

Avengers: Infinity War: More Marvel-ous moolah for comic film-erverse, probably

Re: Miserable old git

"Personally, I'd like to see a real 'Starship Troopers', fairly consistent with the book."

Agreed! I'd especially like to see the Trooper do a proper drop as described in the book. Now that's an entrance!

'Uncarrier' T-Mobile US to un-carry $40m for bumpkin blower bunkum

Reply to Louis Schreurs BEng

The issue appears to be that when people are calling T-Mobile customers who are in rural areas with poor coverage the caller gets a fake dial tone and is led to believe that the recipients phone is ringing when it is not. The caller should instead be getting a recording saying that the call cannot completed. T-Mobile is hiding it's poor coverage.

UK regulator bans slasher-flick parody ad for OnePlus 5 mobe

Re: Have you ever seen Thomas the Tank Engine?

"Henry gets walled up inside a tunnel.

While he's still alive!"

------ "For the love of God, Montresor!"

User fired IT support company for a 'typo' that was actually a real word

Re: If you get a bit twitchy ....

"Orthinology - word botching. Be sure to allow it in your spillchucking dictionary."

My internal spell-checker (brain) misread that as "Ornithology".

People are over reliant on spell-checkers. I always re-read important emails before they go out. Sometimes my brain thinks one word but gets overwritten by muscle memory into similar other words. Not that I am an incredibly fast typist, it's just that my fingers sometimes seem to be trying to predict what I want to type before I compete the thought.

Meet the open sorcerers who have vowed to make Facebook history

Anonymous on Facebook

It's interesting how people think that Facebook does not know who you are just because you don't give them your real name. Between your activity, the activity of your friends, the info you friends have on you (email and phone) Facebook is able to build out a pretty solid profile on you. Facebook knows who you are. They know who you are even if you don't use Facebook so not hard to connect you to an account, even if not under your own name.

Sacked saleswoman told to pay Intel £45k after losing discrim case

“strong, confident women”

I know this is about performance, but wanted to point out her saying that they discriminated against "strong, confident women.

One thing that "strong, confident" men or women sometimes fail to notice is that they can come off an loud, overbearing, obnoxious or display other undesirable characteristics. How you feel about yourself and see your own behaviour is not necessarily how others see you. Strong and confident are good leadership characteristics, but make sure that they is how others see you, not just how you see yourself.

Why did I buy a gadget I know I'll never use?

Re: Microwaved

"You can cook sprouts adequately in the microwave but sprouts cooked in a steamer taste amazing and have a perfect texture. No salt or butter required."

No Butter?!!! How uncivilized!

What do Cali, New York, Hawaii, Maine and 18 other US states have in common? Fighting the FCC on net neutrality

Plebiscite

If FCC chairman Ajit Pai is so sure of what the citizens want, have it out out as a plebiscite and have him offer up his seat if his proposal is rejected.

Too bad that is too complicated and too expensive to do. Once they can do them safely and securely online things will change. But then people will want to vote on everything individually, and most people are way too uninformed to make the right (for them) decisions. It'll be anarchy...ANARCHY I TELL YOU!

So, ah....yeah.

BOFH: Buttock And Departmental Defence ... As A Service

Missed you, Simon.

With Christmas passing and no office party and no New Year's Eve incidents I was worried that w'd lost you. So very good to have you back, and in such fine form!!

Cryptocurrencies to end in tears, says investor wizard Warren Buffett

Said it before and I'll say it again....

1) the people who hype Bitcoin have an interest in the price going up, not down so of course they are are telling everyone that they should buy it.

2) Bitcoin has less intrinsic value that Pokemon trading cards and even that bubble popped (but I AM curious to see how far it will go).

3) Money being held in Bitcoin is not good for the economy. It is sitting stagnant and not supporting the building of anything - not helping companies grow and create new jobs and opportunities.

Ok...#3 is not 100% accurate - companies are being created to manage Bitcoin trading and investment.

That was fast... unlike old iPhones: Apple sued for slowing down mobes

Replaceable battery

I have a Samsung Note 4 that was suffering from battery issues. I purchased a kit containing 2 replacement batteries and an external charger over a year ago for just over $30 and my phone was back to 100%. Every now and then I get itchy to upgrade, but for my usage patterns there just isn't enough incentive to move. My biggest pain point will be sacrificing the ability to easily replace the battery and memory card.

Waterproofing not as important to me as the ability to have access to swap basic components.