Posts by Oldgroaner

Survey finds that four in five enterprise endpoints could run Windows 11

Re: Not gonna happen

Yes, already started my migration to Mint.

UK Electoral Commission slapped for basic cybersecurity fails

Re: As always

Not to those who choose not to be on the publicly available list.

HP customers claim firmware update rendered third-party ink verboten

While deploring HP's vile practises I have only qualified sympathy for recent purchasers of their printers, for many a year it has been clear that they are not to be bought by anyone valuing their pockets or privacy.

If you like to play along with the illusion of privacy, smart devices are a dumb idea

Re: Why would a Washing Machine require my Date of Birth ...

Yahoo knows I was born in 1903.

Using the datacenter as a dining room destroyed the platters that matter

Moved into a flat, electric cooker dead. Opened connection box, mummified fried mouse connecting line and neutral.

Yodel becomes the latest victim of a cyber 'incident'

Re: Lets hope the attackers don't check who owns them..

They also own the Daily Telegraph. So yes, Karma.

Re: Lets hope the attackers don't check who owns them..

One of the brothers is dead and the other is facing the prospect of time inside. Karma.

Twice recently I have Yodel lie about failed delivery and leaving a card - at a time when I was at home and had my front door under observation. When the packages eventually arrived (after several days, not 48 hours) the plants they contained were dead. I've told the firms concerned they'll have no more orders from me until they change their courier.

In the meantime I wish Yodel as much cyberhavoc as possible.

Is it decadent that I use four different computers each day, at different times?

Re: No headphone jack?

Buy an old Kindle keyboard secondhand - had a headphone jack.

Windows XP@20: From the killer of ME to banging out patches for yet another vulnerability

I've a couple of airgapped XP boxes which were updated until 2029 by the POS ready dodge. They're there to run Quicken 2004, never found a better substitute for that. For my modest computing needs (electronic typewriter and filing cabinet) XP was ideal, reliable and stable.

To CAPTCHA or not to CAPTCHA? Gartner analyst says OK — but don’t be robotic about it

Re: Street signs

What are these 'cross-walks' whereof you speak?

Brit IT firms wound up by court order after fooling folk into paying for 'support' over fake computer errors

Re: Hold Music

Too kind. I recommend Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King.

Google reCAPTCHA service under the microscope: Questions raised over privacy promises, cookie use

Re: reCRAPTCHA

Had the same problem with the Guardian sent them a hissy email and had a soft-soap answer, a great way to reward subscribers.

Dido 'Queen of Carnage' Harding to lead UK's Institute for Health Protection because Test and Trace went so well

Re: Why bring in Putin?

Harding - Jockey Club - Paterson - Randox. Join the dots.

Analogue radio given 10-year stay of execution as the UK U-turns on DAB digital future

Re: Thank fuck for that

Absolutely, DAB useless if you want to listen to classical music with its wide dynamic range.

Too hot to handle? Raspberry Pi 4 fans left wondering if kit should come with a heatsink

Re: Easy cooling

So quiet you only know it's onwhen the LED changes colour.

Fan of fans

Why bother with a heatsink when the fan for Pi 4 from Pimoroni works fine and is cheap. Can program it to come on at whatever temp you fancy (65C is suggested) and one can see it rapidly cooling the chip. So quiet you don't know it's cut in unless you notice the LE changing colour. Fits over the first few pins but they're stlill available.

Firefox armagg-add-on: Lapsed security cert kills all browser extensions, from website password managers to ad blockers

Re: If I remember correctly

Ghacks was very quick off the mark with this one -- I was alerted to the problem before it hit me and so didn't waste time trying to figure out what happened. The screen garbage that appeared when deprived of UBlock and other essentials was a revelation.

What a meth: Elderly Melbourne couple sign for 20kg shipment of drugs, say cops

Fiction

There's a George Pelecanos novel about this dodge -- spoiler, it doesn't work out well!

Are you able to read this headline? Then you're not Julian Assange. His broadband is unplugged

Past his best-before date

Bad day for Putin's useful idiot.

Germany slaps ban on kids' smartwatches for being 'secret spyware'

Watches

Mine's the one I wind daily, And increases in value as it ages,

Two drones, two crashes in two months: MoD still won't say why

At least he doesn't have to worry about it any longer!

This is one thing Fallon (now politically RIP) won't have to worry about. Always look on the bright side of life!

RBS debit card payments have gone utterly TITSUP

Used fivers

The only way.

Ad flog Plus: Adblock Plus now an advertising network, takes cash to broker web banners

'Acceptable ads' -- oxymoron.

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

Re: I wonder...

How about these anti-burglar devices that mimic the patterns of a TV?

Tech support locker scam poses as failed Microsoft Update

Note that one of Bisson's 3 preventative actions is install an adblocker.

Remain in the EU and help me snoop on the world, says Theresa May

Re: I quite like the "remainic"coinage.

English nationalists.

Mozilla slings web push notifications into Firefox

Stability

Crashed twice on Amazon last night.

Russian Pastafarian wins right to bear colander

I can't help noticing that the DL of this rather nasty state doesn't include its flag - - as recently pushed onto UK licences despite protests of Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

Microsoft steps up Windows 10 nagging

When the trust is gone

This is Microsoft's Volkswagen moment -- while we anoraks knew they were evil, naive users didn't know and trusted them. Now the trust is gone and can never be restored. During the last fortnight I have installed GWX control panel and Spybot anti-beacon on 9 machines owned by elderly computer users who were on the brink of a change they didn't want -- and many of whom had had 5 or more gig of downloads foidsted on them.

Terrorists seek to commit deadly 'cyber attacks' in UK, says Chancellor Osborne

Joined-up thinking

Massive cyber attacks anticipated -- but black hatters probably waiting until smart meters forced on UK homes. Is Osborne aware of the new opportunities this daft measure will create?

Flying drug mule crashes in Manchester prison

Re: Official phrasing

Clearly a job for Biggles in his trusty biplane.

175,000 whinge to Microsoft about phone tech support scams

Re: 3.3 million people caught by scammers.

Seems low when you see the amount support Trump garners.

NatWest and RBS' mobile banking apps go TITSUP

Slightly off topic but useful

You need to set up Power of Attorney while you're compos mentis. Ideally everyone should do so. Unfortunately, in my experience the main problem then is that bank staff are not well trained to deal with PofA users.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Chana masala

Yummy

For a real street-food experience follow the onion etc recipe -- and add chopped raw red onion, green chilli rings and fresh mint/coriander just before serving.

Norton Internet Security antivirus update 'borked Internet Explorer'

At last a rationale

Probably the most useful thing NAV ever did.

Now Samsung's spying smart TVs insert ADS in YOUR OWN movies

Re: Register Pot, meet Samsung Kettle

What are these ads whereof you all speak? I don't see them. Why do you expose yourself to them?

Google, Amazon 'n' pals fork out for AdBlock Plus 'unblock' – report

Re: I'd rather have subtle adverts... than have to pay a subscription fee

Subtle adverts? Oxymoron.

SURPRISE: Norks' Linux distro has security vulns

Where is it?

Nice picture of Fatboy being helped to find the 'Any' key.

Welsh council rapped for covert spying on sick leave worker

Re: A Morons perspective

Caerffili and 'protect public money' are words that don't normally turn up in the same paragraph. A little Googling will reveal some very iffy activities! See 'What you are all missing' below and follow up the links.

BBC Trust candidate defends licence fee, says evaders are CRIMINALS

Re: Harassment

I have had an amusing few minutes each month for several years when I receive the latest scum-mail from Crapita -- it goes in a cycle, reaching a climax of 'what to expect when you're in court' and then bathetically subsides to the initial communication. Provides me with one useful fire-lighter per month.

Mae Microsoft yn addysgu Swyddfa, Bing, siarad Cymraeg^*

Re: They got agreement on this?

Until late in the nineteenth century French was actually a 'minority language' in France itself -- it had more speakers than any other of the languages within the geographical area, but fewer when these languages were aggregated. It took a massive -- taxpayer financed -- effort by central government to bring about the current hegemonic status of French. Similarly in Wales large sums of taxpayers' money was employed to promote the English language. Now that there is a little redistributive justice there's a surprising amount of bleating about the alleged costs of this -- often, in my experience, from those of an UKIPish disposition.

PS Students of language have a good joke 'What's the technical term for someone who can speak only one language?' 'English'.

Re: Welsh for Office already exists...

After thus disadvantaging their offspring, these parents will bleat that jobs in Wales go to Welsh speakers?

Broadband Secretary of SHEEP sensationally quits Cabinet

Re: "UKIP are the only real option in the next elections"

Better than Farago and his fraudsters.

Re: The needle returns to the start of the song...........

Farage is a Tory reject -- repeatedly turned down as a candidate, now he's pissing into the tent in the hope of getting his hocks in the UK trough just as he's been plundering the MEP trough. And unlike Miller, who at least turned up in Westminster, Farage and his cronies are simply lining their pockets while not doing the job the sheeple sent them to do. UKIP are politicians like all the others, with just the same self-serving ends.

Windows XP is finally DEAD, right? Er, not quite. Here's what to do if you're stuck with it

Hang on long enough and the problem will go away -- who's writing malware for Win 3.11 nowadays?

Why can’t I walk past Maplin without buying stuff I don’t need?

Fatal attraction

Online there's Proto-Pic -- like being given the key to the sweetshop. And your order arrives in a useful plastic box.

The UNTOLD SUCCESS of Microsoft: Yes, it's Windows 7

Win 7 is good enough. Why spend on new OS? Microsoft's idea -- we'll come up with something that means you have to unlearn everything for a decade or more -- and for non-touch desktop owners is incredibly inconvenient. This is our usp. We can't be bothered to implement improvements in speed, stability or security (Win 7 SP2) And now they wonder why Win 8 is seen as a rat sandwich (and death to many PC manufacturers).

The truth on the Navy carrier debacle? Industry got away with murder

Remember Skybolt -- supposed to be the future of Britain's deterrent -- then the USA abandoned it -- as they could the F35.

'Not even Santa could save Microsoft's Windows 8'

Upgrading -- so called

Win 8 isn't upgrading, that's the problem -- ok, faster start-up, better security (but you get both of these with Linux) -- dreadful interface will kill it. Bring on Win 7 SP2.