Posts by tirk

Wanted that Windows 10 update but have an Intel SSD? Computer says no

Re: Looks like we have an MS fanboy

Two of them now - the entire MS QC team have been re-tasked to dealing with this it seems.

Twitter: Why we silenced Rose McGowan after she slammed alleged sex pest Harvey Weinstein

Re: I have a question

Well STD's were called "social" diseases once.

Don't buy Microsoft Surface gear: 25% will break after 2 years, says Consumer Reports

Re: Not just Microsoft

As laptops grew cheaper a few years back they clearly lost quality.

Given the cost of surface products then they should be giving decades of trouble free service!

YASA* looks at turning commercial buildings into Internet things

Obligatory XKCD

XKCD

Much-hyped Ara Blackphone LeEco Essential handset introduced

Re: Dual SIM phones

Doesn't free roaming (which ISTR comes in throughout the EU etc in a couple of weeks) remove that need?

Your 90-second guide to new stuff Nvidia teased today: Volta V100 chips, a GPU cloud, and more

Where's Elon Musk?

The article mentions Tesla and self driving cars after all?

Autonomous cars are about to do to transport what the internet did to information

Traffic jams

*If* the author's vision comes to pass, I predict people will look back on today as a glorious era of free-flowing roads.

Microsoft: Watch out millennials for evil Security Essentials

Re: I know this is all based on user ignorance, but..

MSE is shipped with Windows, isn't it?

It may be now, but it wasn't with Windows 7 (AKA the last version that any self respecting greybeard would deign to use).

Never explain, never apologize: Microsoft silent on Outlook.com email server grief

WTF?

Based on the last few years performance, I can only imagine there's a betting pool amongst the thousands of MS employee stock millionaires for who can finally piss off the customers so much they actually finally go somewhere else...

No joke icon, because I really can't come up with any different explanation.

‘Andromeda’ will be Google’s Windows NT

Re: Will Andromeda be Ascendant?

You feel old? Imagine me - my first thought when I saw the title was Julie Christie! Bloody youngsters...

Sage advice: Avoid the Windows 10 Anniversary Update – it knackers our accounting app

Sage: Newcastle's revenge on the world...

We asked MS to send Michael Caine to sort things out there, but unfortunately they only had Sylvester Stallone available. (And he went to the wrong city).

Not sure what others do but we generally test stuff before doing it on live machines!

You probably have a boss that allows you to buy a second licence of (whatever) to allow it to be tested.

Windows 10 needs proper privacy portal, says EFF

Re: Disk 1 of 2079?

Just how big is a stack of 5,362 3.5" floppy disks...

17.6946 metres, or about 118 pint glasses.

(VPN access to client is down, and idle hands, etc)

Some Windows 10 Anniversary Update: SSD freeze

Where are all the MS apologists?

Maybe MS can loan them each a Windows 7 machine so they can carry on the good work!

BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

"...why not just tie access to the TV licence?"

Because then licence fee payers would be able to watch the BBC when abroad? No, too much like a useful service, not happening.

Apple Watch craze over before it started: Wrist-puter drags market screaming off a cliff

Re: Could Also Be...

I suspect that like the smartphone is not really a phone, the smartwatch will only become more than a niche product when there are compelling non-timekeeping application for them. Fitness apps seem to be the first of them, possibly touch to pay will be another, but I think we are still waiting for the "Visicalc moment" for mass use.

BT customers hit by broadband outage ... again

@carrynot

But with the cloud, it's a highly distributed... single point of failure.

After Monday's landing, SpaceX wants to do it in triplicate

Instead of "boosters" call them "firearms"

Who in America can deny Elon's constitutional right to bear them?

Surveillance forestalls more 'draconian' police powers – William Hague

Re: F*CK technology firms

...until they make possession of opensource encryption software a crime.

Microsoft's Windows Phone folly costs it another billion dollars

Re: Probably cheaper

That would be a great argument if they had ended up with a meaningful cut of the mobile phone market. All they have is a load of ongoing costs and nothing to show for it.

ISS 'nauts to inflate pump-up space podule

The ISS is orbiting too low to stay up without periodic boosts. Keeping this attached would mean they had to send extra fuel up to compensate for the increased atmospheric drag.

@elmer phud

Some of us are celebrating Towel Day!

US work visas for international tech talent? 'If Donald Trump is elected all bets are off'

Re: Good for competition?

"Visa scab"? Really??

By that logic I assume you are not in favour of importing or exporting anything either.

Huge embarrassment over fisting site data breach

Re: Eh?

Surely these days the forum of choice for massive arseholes is Twitter?

Have you checked out BBC "Have Your Say" recently?

Ex-HP boss Carly Fiorina sacked one week into new job

Re: Trump? Who's he?

With the weird skin colour, the bizarre hair and the incomprehensible way he speaks...

Surely he's some minor character from Geordie Shore??

Apple man found dead at Cupertino HQ, gun discovered nearby

Re: Ban all the guns from the planet and in 50 years it will die.

Perhaps it will run out of freedom and oil??

Microsoft: We have a bullet ready for 12 competencies

"...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

The Reality Distortion Generator they got from Apple seems to be working well. If only they had turned it so it was facing the customers, not the staff!

How to not get pwned on Windows: Don't run any virtual machines, open any web pages, Office docs, hyperlinks ...

Re: Hey

Information theory suggests that applying ROT-13 e times gives the optimal result.

SpaceX's Musk: We'll reuse today's Falcon 9 rocket within 2 months

Re: The plans are going to sound crazy

Is it just me or does "Of course I still love you" sound like a Ship name from and Iain Banks novel?

Apple: FBI request threatens kids, electricity grid, liberty

And what's to stop the defence lawyers requesting access to the source code of the cracked OS (to ensue pictures of kittens weren't replaced by plans for bombs)?

Uncle Sam's boffins stumble upon battery storage holy grail

@uncle sjohie - no driveway

Lots of people seem to run charge cables across the sidewalk/pavement where I live (Wimbledon, a suburb of London, where the vast majority of houses don't have a driveway). Never tripped over one yet, and heard of anyone complaining.

Who hit you, HP Inc? 'Windows 10! It's all Windows 10's fault'

I'm sure people will learn to love Windows 10...

...especially when they hear about the lockscreen adverts!.

HP Inc Elite X3: Windows 10 phablet for enterprise-y types

Re: Looks shiny

Has HP given Windows Mobile the kiss of death?

No, Microsoft already did that.

Microsoft patent filing confirms existence of 3D Jedi gesture phone

Re: This must mean

Microsoft are about to close down their phone division

According to the latest Gartner gues^w report, Windows smartphone market share for q4 2015 is down to 1.1% (from 2.8% for q4 2014), so they are well on the way! At that rate we will be selling phones to MS by this next year.

Pilot posts detailed MS Flight Sim video of how to land Boeing 737

@Phil O'Sophical

Didn't Mythbusters do this scenario a few seasons ago? Concluded that trying to land based on MS FS knowledge was unlikely but possible, but then they called up ATC and were given a pretty simple set of instructions to trigger an auto-land sequence.

Boffins' 5D laser-based storage tech could keep terabytes forever

Eternity? Exaggeration surely!

I doubt they'll survive the Big Rip!

(Where is the dark energy icon??)

Virgin Atlantic co-pilot dazzled by laser

Re: How about adding the penalty of......

I suspect the sort of person that shines a laser at an aircraft doesn't think too much about the consequences for either the aircraft or themselves. What's more, you also have to catch the little darlings before you can punish them, and for every arrest/conviction story there seem to be dozens of ones where there was no-one caught.

Given that commercially available lasers use only a few restricted light wavelengths, isn't it possible to add filters for these to the cockpit windows??

Come on kids, let's go play in the abandoned nuclear power station

Re: wind turbines

Well I can tell you from personal experience that it is frequently unbelievably windy there. One guy I knew who had transferred from Harwell tried to cycle to work there and got caught in a hail storm (he was not a pretty sight!). A fun game for the visitor to play is spot the tree!

Snowden bag-carrier Miranda's detention was lawful – UK appeal court

Re: so basically...

It is if you incorporate laws from abroad and then enshrine them in UK law.

Don't believe everything UKIP tell you ;-) The Court has it's origin in the similarly named Convention, drafted under the leadership of a British MP (Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe), and designed to stop another Hitler. The fact that it causes UK governments so much apparent issues is the fault of the stupid legislation they try and rush through to appease the Daily Mail.

Surface Pro 4: Will you go the F**K to SLEEP?

Re: Expensive aren't they?

...a wonder that MS has not sponsored Chelsea.

Chelsea are doing about as well as MS thse days too!

Windows 10 won't come to old WinPhones until some time in early 2016

2016...

The year of WinFone 10?

LHC records biggest bang ever with 1 Peta-electron-volt jolt

Re: Lead nuclear mass

It is indeed Lead-Lead collisions. More information here.

Amazon now renting physical servers you can cuddle and love

Re: Rent

No, they have a physical servers in an offshore tax haven that they rent at obscene rates from another wing of Amazon. That's why they don't make any profits in higher-tax countries. Damn those pesky rental charges!

Lithium-air: A battery breakthrough explained

Re: Oxygen makes things burn brightly

Existing lead-acid batteries produce hydrogen, which can also be problematic. Any decent battery technology will store a lot of energy in a small space, and if it fails be hazardous.

The iPhone 6 doused in bromine - an incendiary mix or not?

Dioxygen difluoride

Now that would have been a bit more exciting - it's a tad more reactive than bromine. For example, it makes water ice burn at -100C.

Nasty stuff!

(Icon used for it's original meaning!)

Wheels come off parents' plan to dub sprog 'Mini Cooper'

Re: If names are rejected because they "might attract mockery"

I met a bloke called Lee Flett at a party once. Claimed his sister was called Pam.

Windows 10 preview on death row, will be executed on Thursday

Re: Win10 jumps the shark.

Surely that was Windows 8. Windows 10 nuked the fridge.

Scotland Yard pulls eyeballs off WikiLeaker-in-Chief Assange

Re: "However it is no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence"

What has suddenly changed?

The local Krispy Kreme closed down?

GCHQ's exploding doughnut threatens to ooze into innocent field

Re: there's an opportunity here

Why don't they just use the vacant space they've got on their San Serif listening post/secret island base?

Microsoft's big Tuesday reveal: New mobiles and slabs? Win 10 shock?

Strikes me that El Reg isn't trying hard enough if they still get invites from MS. Admittedly they are more thick skinned than Apple, but come on guys, you can do better than this!