Posts by PeterGriffin

UK plans right for flat owners to demand gigabit broadband

Re: The elephant in the room is...

You are absolutely correct.

I approached my social landlord, Notting Hill Genesis, circa four years ago and with their permission contacted the Openreach MDU Team and put them in contact with each other. A Site Survey was arranged and.... cancelled. The HA took advise after Grenfell recommendations that meant all projects needed to be assessed for Asbestos and Fire Safety via frameworks / teams/ contractors they didn't yet have. I've been pressuring the manager for my MDU again this year. To his credit he has started doing something. I'm advised they may have arranged Wayleaves by year end - no idea about a site survey, proposed installation dates etc... but I never get an update unless I chase for one. It's so endlessly frustrating.

Huawei masters the great vanishing act as UK sales evaporate

As with much in America at the moment, the notion the Chinese government is putting backdoors in systems just reflects American endeavours:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/02/12/cia-secretly-bought-global-encryption-provider-built-backdoors-spied-on-100-foreign-governments/

Epic lawsuit's latest claims: Google slipped tons of cash to game devs, Android makers to cement Play store dominance

Epic bluster

The idea that Epic is a worthy company being subjugated by bigger businesses is laughable. Look at the current state of Fortnite. They've wholesale plagiarised the game mechanism, maps and gameplay of Among Us. Near wholesale facsimile. They lifted game mechanics from Minecraft and PubG previously. So, Epic, please have a word with yourself about your own propriety...

US govt watchdog barks at FAA over 737 Max inspectors' lack of qualifications

Another reliable source of commentary is Juan Browne on his Blancolirio channel on YouTube. Excellent commentary, insight and careful explanation that I can understand. He has lots of 737 Max content.

Demand for HP printer supplies in free-fall – and Intel CPU shortages aren't helping either

Not always. Back when I repaired HP printers, issues with colour calibration, print glitches or poor print quality were in all but one case caused by third party colour toner cartridges.

US cities react in fury to FCC's $2bn break for 5G telcos: We'll be picking up the tab, say officials

Re: Money, Money, Money

So true. Most British politicians are thankful to have their egos fluffed and a nod to a future board of directors position. Unless they're Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson then it's not just their ego that requires fluffing - their trusting wives be damned.

UKIP flogs latex love gloves: Because Brexit means Brexit

Re: Don’t know much biology but…

And?

Vote Leave won the opportunity to fuck our country. We'll never be grateful for that. Whatever you "won" all we will get is less than we had. Even the government admits that.

UK.gov finally adds Galileo and Copernicus to the Brexit divorce bill

Re: TL;DR

Just like Trump you seem to believe the solution to any relationship is being an unreasonable arsehole and demanding preferential treatment. Sure, you can be an arsehole. At best you'll achieve some small victories, likely you'll be laughed at and at worst it will cause friction that escalates disputes over generations. History has taught me diplomacy yields the best long term outcomes. Why we're allowing narcissistic fucktards like Trump, Johnson, Rees-Mogg et al to dictate our future I cannot understand.

HPE supercomputer is still crunching numbers in space after 340 days

Re: "SSDs fail at an alarming rate in space"

You don't know me but mine died after following the firmware update instructions explicitly. Thanks to Samsung it's not possible to force a firmware update, which may resolve the fault...

One day I may get around to extracting the executable from the live Linux distro it's encapsulated in and trying again...

Fake prudes: Catholic uni AI bot taught to daub bikinis on naked chicks

Are they proposing to MITM all traffic to enforce censorship? That would be the only way to alter content transmitted using HTTPS. Then there's proxies and VPNs to bypass the censor. It seems like a lot of effort had been expended for something easily bypassed?

Distie bosses tuck 7-figure settlement into Cisco's top pocket

Re: We are Cisco, and you will capitulate.... b*tch

Why do you think that is? Perhaps because the German and French governments take it seriously and engage rather than blithely and deliberately insinuating it's out of their hands. The British government had at every step the opportunity to engage and steer the outcome of European decisions but those entrusted with that task, like that Fuckwit Farage, didn't bother. Don't be angry at the countries that use their partnership in the EU to grow their economy. Be angry at our government for not trying.

At last! Apple admits its MacBook Pro butterfly keyboards utterly suck, offers free replacements

Re: Er, this Doesn't Really Fix the Problem...

I like using the term enforced obsolescence. Apple refuse to officially release board schematics, repair tools, procedures and replacements parts outside their authorised repair centres. When Apple don't want to repair your equipment... Tough. But. Apple are almost saintly compared to the Microsoft Surface laptop which can't be repaired without destroying it.

Re: Took me a minute...

Genius :D

Here's the list of Chinese kit facing extra US import tariffs: Hard disk drives, optic fiber, PCB making equipment, etc

Reads in parts as though crafted with the assistance of favoured Republican financial donors - Cash Machines/ATM devices and parts, farming equipment and parts, heavy industry machines and parts, aviation, munitions, wind turbines, electric cars, electric motors...

Reads in part as a list of low value items (semiconductor and electronics parts esp) that will still be cheap enough that the tariff will be paid and the US Govt gets extra cash.

Reads in parts as filler: cassette players (without record function), crt based projectors

Law's changed, now cough up: Uncle Sam serves Microsoft fresh warrant for Irish emails

Re: It's called due process.

In line with their recent VISA information overreach and immigration policies it's more like: America (TM): F*ck You!

I think that is exactly what they are attempting to do. Should they have a valid need for the data they could issue a warrant in Ireland for the data. They haven't. This either means they don't have a valid need for the data or they wish to set a precedent to circumvent international treaties and access any data they wish without appropriate oversight.

Microsoft will resist and Google and Amazon should be trying to assist them otherwise no one in their right mind will be looking to buy cloud storage or compute services from an American based company.

iPhone X 'slump' is real, whisper supply chain moles

Re: Don't Apple do this every year?

LGs latest cheap 4K TVs have poor reviews. The RGBW pixel arrangement is Marmite fit the eyes...

Well done, UK.gov. You hit superfast broadband target (by handing almost the entire project to BT)

Re: Exchange-only lines?

Either radio interference from dodgy electricals or poor connection on a terminal along the path. My ADSL was never amazing and VDSL sync'd at its 40Mbps cap but the line statistics were awful and the sync speed started dropping. I disconnected the bell wire, our unused internal extensions and made a new connection at the main socket. The result was close to double the SNR allowing continual max sync speed and a Fastpath rather than Interleaved connection. There is improvement to be had as periodic crackling and low level hum can be heard on the line - though I think that is outside the confines on our flat.

China may stick to its own DRAM memory soon – researchers

I think the debt is generated internally...

See here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Treasury_security

Then here:

http://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt

China are stock piling Dollars.

America restarts dodgy spying program – just as classified surveillance abuse memo emerges

GOP/DNC can and will say anything to deflect and muddy the water. They have no idea what occurred and with no actual evidence in either direction - who to believe?

.UK overseer Nominet abandons its own charitable foundation – and why this matters

Re: 20% Admin and running costs??

Exactly my thoughts. Now the Nominet Gravy Train is being upgraded to a Corporate Jet.

As an aside, I believe "Charitable" trusts are largely a charade. Examine what scraps of financial information you can find about any of the big charitable names and you will find an obscene amount of money is spent on salary to the executive board.

Twitter breaks bad news to 677,775 twits: You were duped by Russia

Re: The Russians Did It, The Russians Did It

Maybe they did. That you don't want to know is interesting.

Trump would clearly have been Putin's choice. As has been borne out by observable events: The attempt to return confiscated Russian compounds, the failure to implement sanctions on Russia, the brown-nosing of Putin during the campaigning and whilst President, his election and transition team meeting with known Russian agents and the desire to have a "back channel" of communication with the Kremlin that wouldn't be subject to any level of scrutiny. Nothing to do with large sums of money loaned to the Trump empire by Russians in the preceding decade influencing Trump's bias? That said, Trump could just be having a school girl crush on Putin's subversive methods of governance and law making which should frighten the crap out of anyone who values democracy.

Re: Is there any evidence...

Yes. If a person Liked or Retweeted, Replied, Linked or Tagged a biased tweet from an account controlled by Russia they were duped. If their opinion wasn't formed by the propaganda it provided confirmation bias - where there is enough confirmation bias even the most outlandish content becomes believable.

Uncle Sam's treatment of Huawei is world-class hypocrisy – consumers will pay the price

Re: The American consumer will pay in a poorer market without Huawei

It's more likely that America, having elected the buffoon and quickly established itself as a selfish bunch of protectionists, is not as popular as it once was...

Carphone Warehouse cops £400k fine after hack exposed 3 MEEELLION folks’ data

Re: Wordpress

WordPress was exploited allowing access to the host. Credentials were located thereafter, if I read the article correctly.

Merry Christmas, UK prosecutors: Here's a special gift... a slap from the privacy watchdog

Re: Haa Haa Haa

Leaving the EU doesn't suddenly mean we can start making our own decisions. The ability to do so already existed. What the government lacked was the creative thinking when implementing them and it still does.

What annoys the hell out of me is the notion that we NEED unbridled sovereignty. What's wrong with a common framework? Of course they involve compromise but so does any relationship. The only people who separate because they don't always get their way aren't nice people and that is what the UK is becoming. A petulant, self-centred man-child who wont let anyone else play with their toys. The notion that our sovereignty will be held is laughable as our laws will be molded to suit whichever nation state or trading block the government wants to appease.

You can take back full sovereignty. But, for what? Thatcher bet the farm on the financial markets and the UK's manufacturing companies have died or moved to China. Once Brexit occurs and UK business can't directly trade in European markets that chunk of business will be gone too. If we can't align with European food safety laws that business will become restricted. So where is this Green Grass we're heading to?

America's drone owner database is baaaack! Just in time for Xmas

Re: Not disputing that a national drone database is a good ideia

Do not pass go. Do not collect $100. Go to the previous post and locate the point you missed.

Used iPhone Safari in 2011-12? You might qualify for Google bucks

Re: why not sue Apple

Either company could sell targeted advertising without divulging the data upon which they based their targeting i.e. your tracking data. Even if it's their own products. Just because they don't sell the data doesn't mean they aren't up to exactly the same schemes and behaviour.

No one is blameless. People got fed up beating on Microsoft so it's Google's turn. Apple are absolute rotters for their tax schemes and their rapacious greed is to quickly forgotten.

Team Trump goes in to bat for Google and Facebook

Re: Donald Jr vs Ivanka

Piles of debt supplied by foreign governments buying US Treasury Bonds. The US Government has debts of up to $19.9 TRILLION. The US is bankrupt - anyone talking up "growth" is talking B$.

WannaCry-killer Marcus Hutchins denies Feds' malware claims

Re: America is mad!

It is a democracy, for corporations and the wealthy. Look to see who the laws benefit most and you have found your true demographic.

It amazes me we hold the US as the bastion of freedom and democracy.

It's been two and a half years of decline – tablets aren't coming back

I have exactly the same tablet and haven't upgraded for exactly the same reason. The only factor that would sway for a newer replacement is being able to use a newer instance of Android and to know I'm covered by security updates. But there's a Cyanogenmod if I need a newer Android...

Best be Nimble, best be quick. You're out of a job at HPE – and that's sh*t

They can order a paperclip providing they create a product order code for it....

Malware infecting Androids somewhere in the supply chain

Re: Flake

Let's not forget that when Apple declined to assist the FBI in unlocking that infamous iPhone the FBI was able to do so anyway with help from elsewhere. My point being that irrespective the device there will always be a method for the determined to gain access and don't be fooled by claims to the contrary from the manufacturer...

Trump signs 'no privacy for non-Americans' order – what does that mean for rest of us?

Re: Yet ANOTHER Trump story?

Zoom in to the Gigapixel image and scroll left i.e. to the right hand side. Almost obscured by the trees are the vast swathes of empty space which are better highlighted by the aerial video stills from the rear view. The Gigapixel image confirms the lack of audience, but due to the low vantage point and compressed perspective you could be misled by the Alternative Facts™.

Brexflation: Lenovo, HPE and Walkers crisps all set for double-digit hike

What does the dollar have to do with it? Most companies are subsidiaries of a European parent and the parent company orders, imports and books the sale of the goods. Therefore the price rise, to maintain / (more likely) extend their profit margin, would be the difference in the value of the Euro to Pound target than USD to GBP?

DRAMA ON MARS: Curiosity bot fires laser at alien metal object

Re: Excellence in engineering versus planned obsolescence

I know you're joking, but... the reason a lot of devices need to be replaced is simply because the manufacturer stops providing them with software updates that keep them relevant. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is a great case in point. Official Samsung updates would leave your S2 running Android KitKat IIRC. Step forward the CyanogenMod community who have the device running Android Marshmallow. If a person can do that, without the source code to the device drivers and so forth, why the hell can't Samsung who do have the code and significantly more resources!?

Google spews critical Android patch as millions of gadgets hit by Linux kernel bug

Re: All Android devices running kernel < 3.18?

Cyanogenic.

BlackBerry: Forget phones, Lawsuits In Motion is back – and it's firing off patent claims

Re: Hmmm ...

I'm quite impressed by the Priv. Had it any waterproofing I'd be seriously considering buying it. Not so many phone camera have optical image stabilisation and the hardware specification is decent too.

Criminal records checks 'unlawful' and 'arbitrary' rules High Court

Re: leads me to believe the story has greater errors and omissions than just the date.

Two minor convictions cause them to be disclosed on a DBS Report even though "spent". It's the two convictions which cause them all to be still disclosed. A single Minor conviction would not show after becoming spent.

Google UK coughs up £130m back taxes. Is it enough?

Re: The article author is part of the problem.

They pay minimum wage salaries, the employee pays no income tax and is entitled to Working Tax Credit. Thus the government is in effect subsidising the large corporation who creatively minimise their tax liabilities...

Child abuse, drug sales, terrorism fears: Why cops halted a library's Tor relay ... for a month

Anything that exists can be used by those who have different motivation to the intention. TOR may be used by government avoiding paranoids. But equally it may be used by the Silk Road, Terrorists or Child Pornography viewers. It's just a fact and you and each individual should make their own judgement. I have never used and never intend to use TOR as I judge it's existence as an excuse to mask illegal activities.

American Airlines: TITSUP computers ground US flights

Re: American Airlines?

So quit posting here and go fix it!

As US$12bn is wiped off Apple's value in one day, iOS 9, OS X 10.11 and Watch OS 2 dates set

Re: Inconsistent hardware ?

I seem to recall my Samsung Galaxy S5 can record in 4K and is will over a year old. My Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 came supplied with a stylus supporting pressure sensitivity and is well over a year old. My Creative Zen Vision:M had touch sensitive controls and played video and music. In case anyone forgot Apple were sued by Creative and lost due to copying the interface... Apple are definitely now just a dedicated follower of fashion... Maybe worse since they seem to have adopted Embrace and Extend...

James Woods demands $10m from Twitter troll for 'coke addict' claim

Re: He should be ashamed

Videodrome.

Assange™'s emotional plea for asylum in France rejected

http://bethgranter.com/blog/2012/08/julian-assange-admitted-to-non-consensual-sex/

He doesn't sound like a particularly nice person. If he is convicted then he would never be able to visit America unless they did haul him over there...

EU net neutrality could kneecap the Tories' opt-out pr0n filter plans

Once upon a time I would have agreed. Then I hear pornhub is the 35th most visited site by 6 to 14 year olds. That's just not right - I'd go as far as saying it's damaging.

Zucking 'ell! Facebook at Work bloke unfriends Facebook AT WORK

Yammer.

Google TUGS Nexus 7-INCHER from its online store

Drivers

Any issues are likely to be driver related. A major software gremlin in the Galaxy S2 chipset drivers were diagnosed in Lollipop which were present but less frequently triggered in KitKat. It caused S2 devices to hang, run slow and lockup. The same driver (for Exynos chipsets) didn't affect those devices... There were also WiFi issues but these are often resolved by formatting the data and system partitions before installing Lollipop.

It impresses me that clever and dedicated software engineers in and on the periphery of the CyanogenMod community can bring the latest version of Lollipop to a device almost 5 years old. As a consequence my battered and cracked S2 is running a more up to date version of Lollipop than my Galaxy S5!

PayPal settles over WMD sanction-breaking transaction claims

Amazing. The World's Police (TM) place sanctions against individuals for *alleged* wrongdoing. What an amazing justice system they employ.

Samsung to boot out Shin after Galaxy S5 tanks – report

Re: Good hardware... but

Couldn't agree more. The other angle which will ultimately crucify Samsung is the networks. Apple have a unified user experience irrespective of network. Samsung owners, unless willing to root and void their warranty, are at the mercy of the networks as to which software updates they get and when...