Posts by Ol'Peculier

Wordpress sells 100-year domain, hosting plan for $38K

Re: Remember That "Lifetime" Airline Pass

Here you go:

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/jun/25/new-jersey-man-lifetime-united-airlines-pass

The price of freedom turned out to be an afternoon of tech panic

Not if I remember correctly, and if sales were down, the extra 20% will have covered any shortfall...

Many years ago I managed to mess up the logic in processing discount codes on our site that for one bank holiday weekend* anybody using a one that had being promoted through social media etc. ended up paying 20% more, rather than less, for their order.

It was surprising how many people didn't notice...

The number’s up for 999. And 911. And 000. And 111

Many years ago my local telephone exchange burnt down, and BT went on a big skip hunt finding old Strowger kit to install, rather than take the opportunity to update it to System X. Which took quite a while.

But anyway...

What we ended up with was police cars dotted all around the town, so if anybody had an emergency they could bolt down to the street corner and get help there.

The other alternative was for those with a mobile - which wasn't many - was to go to the large hill overlooking the bay and hope to connect to a mast that was wired to a different exchange.

Surprisingly, we all seemed to get through it.

Techie wasn't being paid, until he taught HR a lesson

Many years ago a friend shared the same name as me. Very useful when I was overdrawn as I'd give the cheque (said it was a long time ago...) to him to cash for me, in return for a couple of pints.

Sadly he died, too young, and his obit was in the local rag. I had a client at the time had one of their members call to ask if they knew their web designer had died - to which the lass that was my main contact there replied "well, I hope not - I had a coffee with him this morning!"

We regret to inform you Earth will not be destroyed by an asteroid within 1,000 years

They've got to get through all the clutter that's up there first though...

Three pints barman, and keep the change.

San Francisco fog defeats pack of Waymo robo-taxis

Well, you can't blame them. It's not every day San Francisco is covered in thick fog...

(actually, I've been there twice and never experienced it :( )

Requiem for Google Reader, dead for a decade but not forgotten

I was very disappointed, but not that surprised, when Google killed Reader. Fortunately, feedly.com came along, allowed you to import your feed list and has a pretty good interface on desktop and mobile.

RSS can be such a useful tool, but who wants things that are useful that you can't make buckets of £££ with?

My God, it's full of tabs: Vivaldi's coolest new features shine on phones and cars

If it had some of the additional blocking tools Brave has, it would be my default browser...

Nice smart device – how long does it get software updates?

The only consumer device bar the TV I've got connected to the internet is a heater in my living room that I can turn on if it's a bit cold about quarter of an hour before leaving the pub.

Just can't see the point in anything else, although I am slightly tempted with a cleaning robot...

Musk bans private-plane-tracking @Elonjet on Twitter, threatens legal action

Time to register

iselonairbourne.com

eloninthesky.com

elonaway.com

tintube-elcon.com... et al...

and see how long the game lasts...

OK, we know iPhones are expensive but... $11 a month for Twitter Blue on iOS?

Puzzled...

Am I totally missing the point here or what's stopping you registering on your desktop, then using the account on your iThingy?

Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home

Re: Waste El-Reg Space

There's the problem. The Yanks don't get sarcasm.

Nvidia, Lockheed team up to build digital twin of the Earth for climate researchers

Missing some vital information.

Who designed the fjords?

Did they get an award for them?

Is anybody missing two pet mice?

Royal Mail customer data leak shutters online Click and Drop

Re: Facts?

Correct. Our labels get squired out to a Zebra dedicated printer onto stickers provided by the Royal Mail.

Spooky Pillars of Creation snap reveals a dark side

I'm considering getting on of those custom printed and putting it on the chimney breast at home, dont' think I'd ever get bored looking at it!

Data loss prevention emergency tactic: keep your finger on the power button for the foreseeable future

Re: Another sign of the migration of El Reg Westwards?

Agreed.

Terribly worded phrase. It's the National Health Service. The way it's written makes it sound like it is there to cater for government staff only.

I'm starting to think I need to find other places to find my IT news'n'stuff that still stick to their roots.

Emissions-slashing hybrid trains to hit tracks in Europe

When in a station, If they can switch to battery power (and possibly recharge at the same time) then this needs bringing over here now. The rumblings from the locos in my local station are a major noise nuisance, and caused a newly built multi-million-pound servicing depot to be effectively abandoned.

BOFH: It's Friday, it's time to RTFM

Re: Intelligence?

Spend 5 minutes digging around the AWS menus and your head will be hurting...

BOFH: Who us? Sysadmins? Spend time with other departments?

Re: An important role

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

'Nuff said.

BOFH: Selling the boss on a crypto startup

Seems a slight dig at the Reg's style guide now specifying US spelling.

Whatever, it made me snigger.

Everyone back to the office! Why? Because the decision has been made

Without wanting to be pedantic, it's Peculier

</pedantic>

Tropical island paradise ponders tax-free 'Digital Nomad Visa'

Ah, Bali. Basically Magaluf for Ozzies...

Ransomware plows through farm machinery giant AGCO

Well, that's what happens when you start searching for tractor porn...

Do you know what TikTok is? Then you might make a good magistrate, says Ministry of Justice

When I did jury service at Crown Court about 8 years ago, the judge solemnly looked at us all and told us that we must not talk about the case with family or friends, or post about it on MySpace...

Malaysia tweaks copyright law to hit streamers of copyright-infringing content

Just to clarify, I've never tried to take drugs into Malaysia, nor anywhere else for that matter. I've visited a few times, and have friends there, and it's just one of those little cabin announcements that makes me smile.

But going back to the original subject, there's a big street market somewhere in the centre of KL where you can get knock off Rolexes, western football tops, that kind of thing. Right bang centre of this hive of illegal activity is a police station. Go figure...

So what happens if you visit the country with material already loaded onto a tablet or suchlike?

Asking for a friend, obviously...

(it always amuses me that, just as you start your descent into KLIA, they choose to announce possession of illegal drugs carries a mandatory death sentence. Could they not say that before you get on the plane?)

BOFH: What if International Bad Actors designed the vaccine to make us watch more Steven Seagal movies?

And don't blink...

A lightbulb moment comes too late to save a mainframe engineer's blushes

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato Will wasn't

He wasn't an estate agent? Well, that comes as a relief...

(and I know DNA asked them first, which I seem to think is even mentioned on their website)

Google's Pixel 6 fingerprint reader is rubbish because of 'enhanced security algorithms'

Re: Hmmm

I've just tried putting mine in Aircraft mode and it unlocked, so it's not phoning home.

I've had a Pixel 6 Pro for just under a week, and have no problems with the fingerprint sensor.

I must admit, I preferred the one on the back of the Pixel 3, but all I do is keep my phone pressed to the screen for a gnats whisker of a second for it to register. Seems to be a lack of patience on the couple of people that have Tweeted about it...

What a clock up: Brit TV-broadband giant Sky fails to pick up weekend's timezone change, fix due by Friday

Re: By the time I noticed it, it was too late to return.

A few years ago I drove US Route 50 from coast to coast, so every now and again we'd pass into a different time zone. What we learnt was to look at the clocks on the big displays outside banks to decide when to change, as some places right next to the time zone may choose which side of the line they wanted to be on.

Was odd driving along and changing the clock on the car in the middle of the afternoon...

Sharing is caring, except when it's your internet connection

Reminds me of a holiday (remember them?) to Sri Lanka about 5 years ago, the Wifi was working at first hotel I stayed at, but there was no on-going connection. So, out of curiosity I logged into the hub - as it was still using the manufacturers default password - reset it and bingo, back up again.

I'd say 3 of the 5 places I stayed at hadn't changed the router password, but it's too nice a country to explore, than spend time trying to explain internet security to the staff on the front desk.

---> because it's Friday and it was surprisingly difficult to find in a couple of smaller towns...

Apple's Safari browser runs the risk of becoming the new Internet Explorer – holding the web back for everyone

Case in point when I was reviewing our sites in Web Vitals was support for .webp - Safari is the only browser that doesn't support it.

Pathetic.

Google Pixel 6, 6 Pro Android 12 smartphone launch marred by shopping cart crashes

Re: Pixel Pha

I had a Pixel 1 and currently use a Pixel 3XL running the Android 12 beta at the moment.

Seems to be coping very well, despite being dropped into a mud volcano once...

Weeks after Red Bee Media's broadcast centre fell over, Channel 4 is still struggling with subtitles

Meanwhile, here in the darkest North, thousands still don't have *any* TV or *not much* radio because of the Bilsdale mast fire...

Heart FM's borkfast show – a fine way to start your day

Re: For those outside the UK

Greatest Hits Radio?

Bought out lots of local radio stations, sacked all the staff, closed the offices down (well, the one just up the road from the office closed last month) and produce the minimum content to satisfy OFCOM about regional programming.

EasyJet flight loadsheet snafu caused by software 'code errors' says UK safety agency

Or "Engines Turn or Passengers Swim"

Macintosh Classic II and triceratops skull on auction: One's a dinosaur, the other has three horns on its face

Many many years ago I worked on a project that needed a good high resolution image of the earth. So, bizarrely, we wrote to NASA and they sent back a load of slides and prints that we could use, FOC: including the untethered spacewalk shot.

Is it a bridge? Is it a ferry? No, it's the Newport Transporter

I've actually got a bit of a soft spot for the place, did two terms of a Computer Science degree up there and the night life, as long as you didn't stray "over the borders" was pretty decent.

I wasn't sure where that was going, but I'd consider it a good option than getting off at the northern side, which - at least when I did it - was a tad depressing, to say the least.

'Extraordinary' pigs step in to protect Schiphol airport from marauding geese

Re: Pigs on the Wing

They are. Ask the ATC that were working in 1977 at Heathrow.

Brits open doors for tech-enabled fraudsters because they 'don't want to seem rude'

All in the game...

I think I must be on some kind of blacklist because I don't seem to get them anymore.

It maybe because I've either tried to keep them on the phone for as long as possible, or alternatively saying things like "I've got a terminal illness, I don't need life cover", "my parents were on the plane shot down over the Ukraine so don't need a phone" or a good one when convinced the caller that I was a police officer investigating my violent death related to stock fraud, and why did this number (allegedly from a stockbroker or something similar that I couldn't get rid of) kept calling me.

McDonald's email blunder broadcasts database creds to comedy competition winners

Re: security.txt

Until reading this I wasn't even aware of "security.txt". Then I checked El' Reg and instantly felt a little bit better.

Neither have most of the sites I subsequently looked at, including that of the site owned by the person grumbling about Maccy D's not having one....

Jack Dorsey's side hustle – payments outfit Square – acquires buy now pay later darling Afterpay for $29bn

Certainly with ClearPay if a customer renegades on their repayments, ClearPay takes the hit, not the retailer. Yes, it all adds up to higher fees but at least it's something not to be concerned about if you're flogging stuff.

(I don't work for them, but am working on adding it to our sites)

The UK is running on empty when it comes to electric vehicle charging points

Well, it was waiting for the tanker, I didn't know how long that would take, and I was on my way to a hospital appointment so couldn't hang about.

Last month as it happens, it was getting a delivery. And I limped on to the next one with 0 miles on my dashboard... Was sure I was going to end up needing to get a jerry can from somewhere.

"The issue is not so much the general lack of charging points as there are more chargers than petrol stations already. It is more about the location, quantity, and maintenance of chargers," he told us.

"Most EVs have more range than most people's daily commute, so most charging will be at home for those people who have off-street parking."

Oh lucky you. What about the millions of us that have no off street parking, let alone dedicated spaces? I live in a small block of flats and am actually the only one with a car, but realistically the only way I'm going to be able to string a cable to it is whilst I'm at work, who are at least considering putting a charger in at some point.

For those that live in the town centre that have to fight for space with tourists, daytime works and the likes, then I really don't see what they can do.

Our Friends Electric: A pair of alternative options for getting around town

Re: The door

I remember hearing stories about people pulling into their garages* and realising they couldn't get out, so I don't think it's apocryphal.

*the building next to houses that used to have cars parked in them overnight, rather than the boxes full of junk and chest freezers that have taken over...

The black screen of BIOS borkage haunts Space Shuttle Discovery's new home

Re: Tech/Geek

From my limited experience, I think the exhibitions on the Mall suffer too much from coach loads of kids trying to do every single one of them in the same afternoon.

I just wish there was a better food option other than a McDonalds at the Udvar Hazy Centre though.