Posts by David 132

Microsoft to Windows 10 consumers: You'll get updates LIKE IT or NOT

They certainly do with Silverlight. Still do with Silverlight.

Oh, thank goodness. It's not just me seeing that, then.

Every single time I go to Windows Update, I get offered Silverlight. And every single time, I say "Hide this Update".

Perhaps it's a different version each time?

Like the "Malicious Software Tool" that scans your system. If you decline the July version of the tool, WU offers the June version, so you decline that, so it offers the May version... and so on back through time. I haven't had the heart to decline the March 1615 version yet, which apparently checks for Conficker, ILoveYou, and "Heliocentrism ande other Heresies, such as maye be against Godde and Nature".

.

Re: no matter what MS force on us

Replying to my own post - terribly bad form, I know.

Firstly, I seem to have attracted a downvoter. Every one of my posts of the last few days that are remotely critical of Microsoft has a single down-vote. Hello, whoever you are, my unknown stalker. My very own Millon De Floss.

Secondly, let me illustrate my point above with a car analogy (*groan* - no, really, bear with me, please).

Ford release a new car, and promise that they'll update it continuously, without you needing to do anything or take it to a dealer, free of charge. Great! What's not to like?

At first, all is wonderful. "We've noticed that the front brake pads wear unevenly on this model, so we've given your car a new improved pad design." "We uploaded new ECU firmware, you now get bettter MPG".

Then you come to your car one morning and find that the HVAC knobs have been removed, and are now soft buttons on the touch-screen, two levels down from the main screen. They look pretty, but you can't use them with gloves on.

The car will now refuse to move at all unless your seatbelt is buckled, "for your safety and because focus* groups say they prefer it". Safe, sure, but now it's a total nuisance if you want to just pop your car out of the garage to wash it.

When you switch on the radio, it nags you to subscribe to Spotify. Every time.

And so on.

See? I feel very strongly that changes of user interface and functionality, no matter how well-intentioned, should not be pushed upon the user (and OWNER) of the system without informed consent and choice.

I emphasise "owner" because that's who should be in control of the PC. In a corporate environment, I accept that the owner is not necessarily the user - and if I'm using a PC given to me by my employer, I can't really grumble if they choose to reconfigure it. But in a home environment, owner == user, at least most of the time.

*- "Focus" groups. In the context of Ford cars. Heh. I made a funny.

Re: no matter what MS force on us

A few examples for you:

Let me add to that.

As Microsoft have made very clear - and highlighted in the article - this "auto patching" will apply to feature updates and not just security updates.

In other words, your environment and UI can/will change on an almost daily basis, purely at the whim of Microsoft.

"Oh, we thought it would be really cool to make Notepad a Modern-UI-only app"

"We've acquired TwitBookrCloud(TM) Inc and we want everyone to have the client app embedded into their desktops as a non-removable feature. What do you mean, you don't want it? It's cool! It's hip! It's So Hot Right Now!"

THAT is my biggest objection. "Why do you want to block security updates?" is a straw-man.

Need I remind you that Microsoft have already shown cavalier disregard for the distinction between security patches and feature updates - how many Windows Updates under 7 or 8 have the generic description "Resolves issues with Windows" but turn out to be entirely non-essential feature tweaks?

Exhibit A: KB3035583, that is described as "Install this update to resolve issues with Windows" - but actually adds the incessant "RESERVE YOUR COPY OF WINDOWS 10 NOW!!1!!" nag to the system tray.

Before anyone accuses me of being a troll or a linux fanboy - no. I like Windows. I have a lot of respect for Microsoft. Version after version of Windows has improved my computing experience. And their view of the ideal personal OS has - largely - matched my own until now. But from Windows 8 onwards, they've shown that their priorities are:

- moving everyone to cloud computing, via enforced Microsoft accounts and online everything (example: Cortana voice assistant, cool. But why should I have to create a Microsoft account to get any functionality?)

- out-Googling Google on data collection ("Allow us to collect data about your browsing history to improve browser page prediction?" --> Default answer: yes)

- dumbing down the UI, to please - who? Even my 60-something-year-old mother, who I'd hold up as a paragon of "doesn't understand computers", doesn't like the Modern UI and finds it confusing.

- monetizing every little aspect of the computing experience

TL;DR: Their vision of computing is divergent from mine. I will stick with Windows 7 as long as I can.

Feel like you're being herded onto Windows 10? Well, you should

Re: Life on the trailing edge...

Our IT department has given my team a migration date of late 2016, but it may slip into Q1 2017. That's migrating from XP to 7 by the way.

Seriously?

Not questioning your assertion, but that strikes me as particularly tardy.

Roughly how many systems are involved?

If they're intending to use XP for another 12-18 months, what's their strategy for coping with security?

Got any details/BKMs you'd care to share?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Sixty-five THOUSAND Range Rovers recalled over DOOR software glitch

I think that's fairly standard across most makes though.

Yup.

This would be an opportune moment to relate a story told to me by a good friend who used to work for a particular Japanese car manufacturer in Swindon (won't name them to spare their blushes, but they're a source of Civic pride).

Seems they had a car-park full of newly-built cars awaiting transport to the docks, and a metal water-tower that towered (heh) over the area.

Contractors were hired to re-paint the water tower, and were expressly warned not to do so if there was any breeze. They ignored that warning.

Cue my friend and several colleagues spending hours in the car-park with a handful of microfiber cloths and cans of solvent, cleaning beeellions of tiny Hammerite splatters off all those shiny new cars...

Still, he said it was good money while it lasted.

PLUTO FLYBY: Here's your IT angle, all you stargazing pedants

Re: Duck

We find out if the Plutonians shoot it down or not tomorrow.

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!"

Drop-stitch: Microsoft's 3D Photosynth app sinks into oblivion

"Trust us"

"we strongly encourage people to upload their panoramas to Photosynth.net. Photosynth.net is still maintained..."

"...until we get tired of that, too, at which point you'll lose all your photos."

Isn't Cloud Computing great?

Hacked Hacking Team team – like everyone in security – read The Register

Hubris.

As ever, an appropriate Pratchett quote:

"When gods get together they tell the story of one particular planet whose inhabitants watched, with mild interest, huge continent-wrecking slabs of ice slap into another world which was, in astronomical terms, right next door – and then did nothing about it because that sort of thing only happens in Outer Space. An intelligent species would at least have found someone to complain to. Anyway, no one seriously believes in that story, because a race quite that stupid would never even have discovered slood." (Last Continent)

We tried using Windows 10 for real work and ... oh, the horror

Re: To be fair... It's better than 8, in the same way that the Flu is better than Ebola

Perhaps not the best analogy, as influenza currently kills a lot more people than does Ebola.

You are technically correct (the best kind of correct). But which would you rather have inflicted upon you?

Although I'll admit that when it comes to analogies, metaphor and simile, I'm of the William Topaz McGonagall school.

Re: To be fair...

The solution to that one is simple. Install CS2, which is free (as in beer)

Thanks for the pointer. I'd got it into my head years ago for some reason that CS2 wasn't really free - something to do with Adobe screwing up an upgrade key authentication scheme and inadvertently allowing anyone to get it? goodness knows where that came from! - but didn't ever bother to check my assumptions, because PS7 works fine-ish for me.

I will investigate. Have a pint, free (as in CS2).

Re: Waiting for SP1?

No link (I was told this by a Microsoft staffer at a recent tech training event) so file this under "uncorroborated" if you like.

What they told us is that:

- Home / small-business users will have no ability to decline/defer patches, hence my rant above.

- Enterprise / Managed IT users (on the Windows 10 "business" track) will have the normal mechanisms as used today - WSUS, GPOs, the whole shebang.

Perhaps the screenshots you found reference the latter variant?

Re: Waiting for SP1?

I found the offending update and disabled it, but needed another box with a working internet connection and some spare time I didn't have. For the average home user who doesn't have two computers? Screw you.

From what I understand from Microsoft, Home users won't have the ability to decline or defer updates to Windows 10 - patching will be automatic, mandatory, and continuous. And this won't be limited to security fixes.

Random changes to the user interface from one week to the next as the Sinofsky disciples decide everything, even Command Prompt, needs a ribbon interface and touch-friendly GREAT BIG BUTTONS. App du jour spontaneously appearing on your machine because Microsoft want to get more people using Skype/OneDrive/whatever and feel that a mechanism for distributing vital security patches is an appropriate channel. Patches that b0rk your machine because you have an odd combination of printer driver and video card that MS couldn't foresee. "Would you like to reboot now or in 10 minutes' time" prompts interrupting your gaming.

I'm sorry. I know I come across as a total Luddite. But dealing with this stuff just isn't fun any more.

Re: To be fair...

Photoshop 7 has always given me grief with installing on Win7 64 bit -

It's been a while since I had to re-install my trusty genuine copy of PS7, but ISTR the 7.01 update is necessary for installation on x64.

It still has a problem with larger hard drives; if free space is beyond some large-by-2002-standards amount, PS7 complains that the drive is full. The workaround is to save to a different drive. As mentioned above... it's 13 years old, so we can overlook its quirks!

As for Win10, I posted my thoughts on it a couple weeks ago over on the forums. It's better than 8, in the same way that the Flu is better than Ebola, but it's far too privacy-invasive for my liking. Just about every one of the capabilities in 10 requires a Microsoft account and upload of all your contacts/history/data to the cloud. No thanks.

Crowdfunded beg-a-thon to bail out Greece raises 0.003% of target

Re: Sadly this would not work

a come-hither horse.

The mane attraction?

Seeking a stable relationship?

Perhaps the Greeks need to pay the Danegelding? Or are they just making up policy on the hoof, as their economy Withers?

Sorry. I'll ftop being filly.

Re: Ignorance of the issue

Since it is abundantrly clear to everyone that the EU willl do whatever it takes to stop any nation leaving the Euro

And there's the rub.

The Eurocracy are not, despite their public protestations, afraid of Greece leaving and thereafter collapsing into chaos, rains of blood, cats and dogs sleeping together, etc etc.

That would be a good outcome from the perspective of the EU - "pour encourager les autres", it would stiffen the resolve of Portugal, Ireland, Spain &c. to double down on their austerity efforts and be good little EU team-players.

What scares the EU powers-that-be is that Greece will default, Grexit will occur, and - unshackled from grossly unsuitable and inflexible monetary policy, the Greek economy will begin to recover on its own terms. "Hang on," Portugal/Spain etc will say, "if the Greeks are doing better now that they have a floating exchange rate and fiscal autonomy, why don't we do the same?". And bang will go the acquis communitaire and the unifying dreams of Monnet, Delors, Juncker et al.

Sadly, or happily depending on your point of view, there's little chance of that latter outcome, as the Greeks have seen fit to elect a loony left government with about as much grasp of fiscal realities as Rick from the Young Ones.

My own view? It's one of those scenarios where I really don't care who wins or loses. Like watching a wasp fighting a scorpion, I don't care whether the centralising control freaks in Brussels get their way, or the Dave Spart-alikes in Syriza. I just feel sorry for the Greek people who are having to suffer through this mess.

Facebook casts a hex with self-referential IPv6

I think I'll use a55 in my future IPv6 addresses.

Oh dear, are we unleashing our inner 8-year-olds via the medium of IPv6 addresses? Back in my day it was 7-segment Casio calculator displays.

Bagsie I get 5537:8008, 'cos it looks rude upside down as any fule kno. Also, teacher smells. Nerr.

Get READY: Scientists set to make TIME STAND STILL tonight

Re: A completely preventable situation.

Call it a RAM upgrade, then.

Stealing secret crypto-keys from PCs using leaked radio emissions

Presumably the pita bread attack vector can be thwarted by a strategically placed tub of hummus.

Epic Falafel.

Supermarket tweet: Twitter ankles balloon in product, places shopping frenzy

They REALLY said that? With a straight face?

[Twitter announced it was] "playing around with two new functions to 'make it easier for you to discover rich and relevant content about products and places on Twitter.' "

Really?

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

This is the kind of bastardisation of the English language that can only come from the Dark Arts of Marketing.

I mean, has anyone EVER thought to themselves, "gosh, my life is almost complete. If only I could more easily discover rich and relevant content about products and places".

(I might have to burn my keyboard after typing that).

Bastards. I hope they all die a horrible death. I'm with Bill Hicks on this one.

Windows 10 Preview - First Impressions?

Out of interest, (and this is a genuine question, as I am a complete non-Microsoft shop here), how aware were you/would a typical user be, of the issues you describe, if you had done the, 'express', install?

That's a good question 1980s_coder, and I don't know the answer. I haven't tested it, because I always when installing software, pick the "custom install" option; a habit that has allowed me to dodge countless Ask Toolbar / Bonzi Buddy installs, for a start!

Would it make any sense for MS to pick the most privacy-friendly options when "Express" is selected, but pre-select the opposites when "Custom" is chosen?

Re: Does anyone else think Win10 is a privacy nightmare?

I'm pretty sure that @david 132 means, "privacy nightmare relative to other Windows".

Correct. I should have made that clearer. And yes, I know Windows 7 isn't spotless in this regard, but what irked me (and prompted my rant above) is that EVERY. SINGLE. OPTION. in Windows 10 seems to be geared towards "tell us about everything you do". The "predictive browsing", for example, which is described as - paraphrasing - "To predict which web-pages you'll want to view and pre-load them for you, details of your browsing habits will be sent to Microsoft". Is that not the least-privacy-friendly and most intrusive way to accomplish the goal? Why not do it locally? "Oh, every day for the last 3 weeks he reads bbc.co.uk/news then goes to bbc.co.uk/news/UK, so I will pre-load the latter while he's reading the former"?

And it's not as if this related to it being a public beta; as far as I can tell, these are the standard options that every user will face. If the options were prefaced with something like "Because this is a preview, we need to collect as much information about how you use this OS as possible." that would be different.

Oh, and on that topic; the "feedback" tool only works if you sign into Windows with your MSDN/Windows Insider cloud login. I don't; I always use a local account to sign in (because I don't see any advantages to giving MS & the NSA/GCHQ/whoever my username and password). So I can't submit any feedback on Windows 10. Ergo, Microsoft are excluding the voices of people like me who are concerned about privacy, and (arguably?) have valid points. When they release Windows 10 and people complain about the pervasive snooping, they will look around, bemused, and say "But no-one gave us any negative feedback about this during the beta phase..."

Grrr.

Does anyone else think Win10 is a privacy nightmare?

I just installed one of the latest builds (101xx).

During installation, I chose "custom" rather than "express" settings. That's where I started to get a bad feeling...

1) The "customize settings" option is tiny text, but the "Express" settings option is a BIG PROMINENT BUTTON.

2) The default option in just about every case is the worse privacy choice. Had I left them unchanged, the OS would be sending info to Microsoft about my: contacts, browsing habits, location, downloads, applications. It would be allowing apps to view my location, associate me with a default advertising ID, and access just about everything in my profile.

3) By default the Search box on the task-bar / Start Menu searches via Bing for everything I type. So if I type "common", for example, the top result is the local file "Show/Hide Common Icons on the desktop" - but I also get search predictions showing what every schmuck on the web has searched for ("Common Venereal diseases", etc). To turn this behaviour off, I had to ferret deep into the Group Policy editor (which, I'm guessing, won't even be an option on "Home" versions of the OS).

That latter point is the one that concerns me; what if I don't WANT Microsoft/Bing/their advertisers to get copies of all my searches? Hypothetically, what if I work for Acme Corp, and search for a local file called "Acme Corp Bankruptcy Plans July 2015.xlsx", or less dramatically, "Acme Corp takeover of FooBar Corp plans.docx"? MS will have a record of that term. Would anyone else using Bing to search for "Acme Corp" get that as a search prediction?

I'd rather have the Windows 7 behaviour, where the Start menu search box was limited to local files/applications.

Am I being a tinfoil-hatter, or does anyone else think this OS is shaping up to be sinister? Considering all the noise Microsoft have been making about protecting users' privacy, this seems... hypocritical? Their default stance with Windows 10 seems to be to datamine the user.

Apart from that I think it's generally an improvement over Windows 8. Anyone else agree?

Women are fleeing from the digital sector, reckons UK.gov report

Re: @ trev potts

Could be worse, you could be a mopper-upper at a peep show.

Or "chief b*llock-catcher at the eunuch factory", a particularly poor occupation in the Roman Empire mentioned in Chelmsford 123, as I recall.

Mind you, that's also a sexist job, because it takes balls.

I tried reproducing by cellular mitosis, but it gave me a splitting head ache.

Sacré bleu! Parking machine labels French mayor ‘thieving bastard'

Re: ... Sadly twinned with both Reading and Basildon

The sadly twinned line stood out to me a joke I am clearly missing, would anyone care to enlighten an international reader who does not get the reference?

'Twinning' is a cozy little scam that local government councillors across Europe have run for a number of years - pick a town elsewhere in the world, establish diplomatic relations with your civic government counterparts over there, and your communities will be Best Friends Forever. In theory it allows communities of similar size/challenges to learn from each other and establish entente cordiale; in practice it just means taxpayer-subsidized holidays^H^Hjunkets^H^Hfact-finding "friendship" visits for the aforementioned bigwigs for ever more.

Generally the towns with which UK places are twinned tend to be rather pleasant, so the Mayor and his/her cronies have to force themselves to suffer a visit to, say, Nice or Geneva - but the trendier municipal authorities have a compulsion to twin with benighted hell-holes that bear no relation to their own community (e.g. "Marlborough, twinned with Gunjur in the Gambia".)

As the article points out, sometimes that cuts the other way, and the foreign town draws the short straw out of misguided sympathy or just bad luck. I'm sure the French town hoped to be twinned with somewhere nice - but had to settle for Basildon and Reading. Perhaps next year they'll get an upgraded twinning arrangement with Mogadishu or maybe even Detroit.

Bundestag hack origin still a mystery as DE.gov techies pull out their hair

Re: Block cyberpackets at the router!

In which part of the multiverse would this actually work? How can you select for Trojans, why would the NSA analyze them and why would it warn anyone of anything?

Simple.

For each packet, if the Evil Bit is set, forward it to the NSA. Actually, forward it to anywhere, safe in the knowledge that the NSA will get it.

Of course, some bad actors might theoretically neglect to set the Evil Bit, but there's just no dealing with some people.

Multiple fondling on the MIGHTY 12-INCH iOS 9 SLAB — so, so close now

Re: Percy's Horse

Maybe one of the colour options will be Purest Green.

Robocalling Americans? That'll cost you $1.7m

And they immediately take no notice.

Coincidentally, I just received one of these calls, about 5 minutes before seeing this article.

A spoofed number that began with my area code but had way too many digits - 503515386523 - I foolishly answered it anyway (my wife can never remember her number, so hands mine out to everyone as her point of contact, so I get random calls asking when I'm going to take delivery of even random-er furnishings & suchlike, but I digress).

Anyway. Perhaps in response to this verdict, "Rachel" has changed her name and modified her pitch. She's now "Melinda from Credit Card services", and she assured me that my current account is OK but I need to call them urgently. No. Fsck off. Hung up at that point.

So maybe it'll take more than a $1.7 meeeellion judgement to squish these scumbags. Personally I'd feed 'em into an industrial meat grinder feet first, but then I've always been soft on social justice matters.

LOHAN's final test flight set to honour PRATCHETT

Re: 4 years

Unless the FAA starts reporting to Lord Vetinary - a while yet.

Vetinari.

Tsk, tsk. Report to the duty torturer. A little something off the ears, I think.

Right Dabbsy my old son, you can cram this job right up your BLEEEARRGH

Re: Desk name plate and worn name ID for all

I have a black T-shirt, unadorned except for a design resembling one of those conference "Hello My Name Is" badges. I wear it to work occasionally, living in foolish hope that a previously un-encountered coworker will say "Hello Mr Inigo Montoya".

Little things, little minds.

Re: I blame the parents...

Like this: ᚤᚳᛁᛇᛅᚤᛁᚱ?

Ogham?

Or more like, given the tone of Dabbsy's columns, Oggham...?

Messerschmitts, Sinclairs and a '50s living room: The Bubblecar Museum

Obscure TV references 'r' Us

+1 (heck, plus several thousand) for the reference to A Very Peculiar Practice.

I was starting to think no-one else remembered it.

"Would that be marmalade you'd be smearing on your crotch, Bob?"

I once saw a convoy of Bond Bugs driving through Swindon. It's an exciting place like that.

Keurig to drop coffee DRM after boss admits 'we were wrong'

Re: I suppose.

Ah. Yes. I debated whether to add the caveat "...but devices that use the frequency for timing purposes will have problems"!

I was going to give you a link to another Youtube video that shows the effect of running a teasmade on US voltage - and then realized that by incredible coincidence it's the same model as in your video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Zo4AVL7AE (interesting bit happens from 0:06s-->0:09s)

[tl;dw: Queen - I Want To Break Free, official video]

Good luck.

Re: I suppose.

Now if i could just figure out how to get a Goblin Teasmade working on American wall current.........

250V/60Hz circuits are available in most/all American homes - usually for electric stoves, furnaces, that kind of thing.

Here in Oregon I bodged a UK 3-pin socket & cord onto a NEMA 6-20 plug from Home Depot, and via one of the 250V sockets in my garage can now use my UK jig-saw, kettle and cordless drill charger*. They don't seem to mind either the slight over-voltage or the difference in cycle rate.

I'm sure any qualified sparkie reading this will be having palpitations at this point, but hey, "YOLO" as I believe the kids say...

*-individually. Not all at once. Cos, you know, that would be tempting fate.

Volkswagen Passat GT 2.0-litre TDI SCR 190 PS 6spd DSG

Re: Heated steering wheel???

I recall reading somewhere - can't be bothered to google it, so take this with an appropriate level of scepticism - that heating the steering wheel is one of the most effective/efficient ways to "trick" the driver into thinking the whole car is warm. For electric cars, where every erg wasted on interior heating is one less to use to propulsion, a heated steering wheel is the best way to make the driver feel "warm" quickly and efficiently. If your hands are toasty, you're more inclined to ignore your chattering teeth and icicle-encrusted nose.

All of which is somewhat tenuous when applied to a combustion-engined vehicle like this one, of course. For what it's worth I have a heated steering wheel in my Volvo XC60. It's handy on cold mornings. Wouldn't have paid extra for it, but it came bundled on the car along with more compelling features (heated seats... mmmmm)

Sorry, Windows 10 early adopters: Microsoft Edge WON'T block ads at launch

Edge has all the features I need

I've always preferred to think of Microsoft's browser as a single-purpose tool to download a proper browser, as in "Oh, I see Microsoft have released Firefox Downloader Version 11".

So on that score, Edge has everything I might ever need from it.

But I do like downloading Firefox in a way that is, as Joe Belfiore touted it at BUILD, "on the edge of consuming and creating" and "to the developer notion of being close to the modern capabilities of the web.".

Thanks Joe. Really appreciate your hard work there.

'Android on Windows': Microsoft tightens noose around neck, climbs on chair

Re: Pining for fjords

putting a møøse round its neck

Fixed it for yøu.

Netlist gets derisory $2 award following Diablo IP theft trial kerfuffle

Re: They have grounds for appeal

I like your explanation. But I doubt they scanned them; EURion constellation and all that...

They have grounds for appeal

They may have only won $2, but according to your photo both dollar bills have the same serial number. Oh Diablo, you're in trouble now. Counterfeiting? Now that's an offence.

Someone PLEASE stop patent trolls' stroking their favorite tool, cries Google and friends

Re: ratfox

There are plenty of arguments against Microsoft, but relative to other technology companies, their ratio of innovation vs patent litigation is higher.

By and large, I concur. But let's not forget the whole FAT32 patent thing, or the repeated-and-vague "nice Android OS you have here, we own patents on the mumblemumblemumble aspects of it, so you owe us money" threats. MS' hands are not entirely clean on this front.

LG monitor software quietly kills UAC, dev says

If you disable UAC on Windows 8, the OS won't let you run any of the TIFKAM apps.

And nothing of value was lost.

On Windows 10 it's more annoying though - even the TIFKAM Settings apps are disabled. So it's hobson's choice; disable UAC and have control of your own PC, or retain the ability to change basic system parameters. Thanks, Microsoft, for treating us like infants.

Volvo V60 Polestar: Speak softly, carry a big stick, dress like a Smurf

Re: As a Volvo owner...

"Meh, petrol's 49p/litre here so I don't care"

Where is this??? I want to move.

'Murrica. The Pacific Northwest - less kooky than California, less icy than Alaska. Better craft beer than just about anywhere outside a CAMRA convention. No sales tax. Friendly natives.

I did the $/US Gallon conversion just to blend in here. And probably screwed it up - if anyone cares to double-check my working, we're paying $2.80 per (US) gallon here for Premium right now. Was down as low as $2 earlier this year, muhahahaha!!1!

As a Volvo owner...

I found myself nodding in agreement with this article.

I don't have the V60, Polestar or otherwise, but I have what the article describes as its putative parent, the XC60. Great seats and a feeling of general solidity have always been a feature of Volvos for as long as I can recall. However the overall build quality seems to have taken a slow glide downwards since the Chinese took over. Driving around town last weekend, part of my sunroof spontaneously fell off and hit my wife on the head. Depending on your personal matrimonial situation, that may or may not be seen as a bad thing.

The LCD dash is kind of cool but it's more a gimmick than anything; you have 3 "themes" to choose from, but tbh I picked one and then stuck with it. Rarely do I find myself thinking "hmm, it's Tuesday, today I will go with the Eco theme for my dashboard".

Volvo engines are good but, as the article alludes, tend to be quite thirsty; mine has a 3.0L I-6 which pushes out 300bhp to the accompaniment of a giant sucking sound from the fuel tank. Meh, petrol's 49p/litre here so I don't care. I hear Volvo are moving to I-4 engines with various degrees of turbo/supercharging up and down their range, which will help.

Same Haldex system as the V60 in the review (AWD not "true" 4WD - maybe the article needs a tweak?); it's good inasmuch as it keeps the car planted solidly.

In terms of other common Volvo traits - yes, the bluetooth syncs quickly and works well, but the mass of buttons on the "floating" centre console are small, fiddly, and tricky to find whilst driving. Reach out for the heated-rear-screen button without looking and you might find yourself changing radio channel or turning off the parking sensors.

Not sure about this Polestar V60 specifically, but estate/SUV Volvos have one optional feature that appeals to my malicious side - a button on the console to automatically flip the rear seat head-rests downwards. To improve visibility, but it takes no account of whether the seats are occupied. Known in my family as the "if y'all don't shut up back there I will whack you on the back of the head" button. *grin*

Bone-tastic boffins' breakthrough BRINGS BACK BRONTOSAURUS

Re: Biological accuracy

The ones in the picture are wearing inflatable water-wings - unfortunately not quite visible, just below the surface.

There's simply nothing in nature to rival the aural symphony that is a herd of majestic Brontosauri thundering towards a pool, roaring and bellowing, with their water-wings squeaking and hissing with over-inflation.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Deep-fried cheesy Hungarian

I made this last night - and survived

I made this last night; my wife was torn between excitement that I was cooking for once, and trepidation/mortal dread that I was cooking for once.

It went pretty well despite my sober state. The quantities given in the article made 6 pieces, although I suspect I could/should have made them thinner than I did. For what it's worth, I used grated Gruyère and lashings of sour cream. Delicious! And we both survived!

I note the suggestions above about adding garlic, or folding the cheese inside the dough - and will certainly give those a try.

Thanks Lester, another good recipe. Keep 'em coming.

Microsoft update mayhem delays German basketball game, costs team dear

Re: Linux

For the kernel maybe, but what about the cluster-fsck that is systemd?

Well good news in this specific case - Systemd will soon include not one, but three German-Basketball-Scoreboard modules. All more or less complete and functional, but Lennart Poettering will leave the actual debug-and-testing to others.

</snark>

<bitter>

Microsoft's Project Spartan browser is HERE (unless you build apps or run VMs, that is)

Re: No wonder tech is hard

Ah, I'm glad I'm not the only one who read the headline and immediately thought "so, wait, Sparta won't run in a VM? or won't run if you build an app with it?"...

For those like me that are slow on the uptake or excessively literal, may I respectfully suggest a little tweaking of the headline, Reg team?

Building a better society from the Czechs' version of Meccano

Re: Plus.

> an 8.8mm Canon to shoot down all those pesky new fangled drones.

An ore-mining machine with a very tiny clergyman? I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

The fact that I don't have this kit makes my deacon blue.

AT&T, Verizon and telco pals file lawsuit to KILL net neutrality FOREVER

Re: AT&T and Verizon are ever-attuned to the public mood

23 upvotes? For a throw-away remark? I certainly hit gold there. Thank you, thank you, you're a lovely audience *mwah!* *mwah!*

The 1 downvote puzzles me though. Someone who doesn't like or comprehend sarcasm? (Eh, understandable)

Or maybe works for one of those two lovely, fluffy companies?

AT&T and Verizon are ever-attuned to the public mood

I'm sure AT&T and Verizon can rely on the vast amounts of public goodwill they've carefully nurtured over the last few years to sweep them to victory and popular acclaim.

Go get 'em, America's Most Loved Companies!