Posts by David 132

Machine-learning model creates creepiest Doctor Who images yet – by scanning the brain of a super fan

Re: 30 Episodes?

Thanks, but the gears always stick in my teeth. I’d rather have a chocolate one.

Re: Dang it

John Nathan-Turner’s brain in a jar, hooked up to a van der graaf generator, several erlenmeyer flasks of dry ice, a jacob’s ladder or two, and a giant we-belong-dead blade switch, all operated by a postgrad student with a hunchback and a lisp?

Now that’s the kind of cutting-edge real science I can get behind. Fund it immediately!

Re: re. This is very unlikely to be usable for repression

Well, I didn’t expect that!

Re: Someone with access to an MRI machine has misunderstood machine learning again...

I seem to recall that Newman and Baddiel presented a thoughtful and intellectual history discussion series at one point too.

On the other hand, research into artificial insemination in cattle is a no-bull endeavour...

Dev creeped out after he fired up Ubuntu VM on Azure, was immediately approached by Canonical sales rep

Re: Dear Canonical...

P.S: Did you know you have over a gig of files in your temp folder, probably time for a clear out. Oh and also, that shirt really doesn’t suit you, you need to buy more milk, and your car’s oil-change is due. And you shouldn’t pick your nose like that.

Nominet vows to freeze wages and prices, boost donations, and be more open. For many members, it’s too little, too late

Re: Irrelevant in the longer term?

I believe the multi-talented Lauri Say recorded a song on the subject of UDI For The Isle of Wight back in the late 60s... pretty sure it was on the rather rare “Songs for Singing Islanders” disc along with “Cowes Week”, “The Westlabd SRN Super Noiseless Hovercraft” and “It’s The Isle of Wight For Me”. Can anyone with a better memory than I confirm that it was Lauri? I have them all as MP3s but am currently without power due to a winter storm, and contemplating a 3-day weekend of shivering pre-industrial existence...

Looking for the perfect Valentine's gift? How about a week of retro gaming BBC Microlympics?

Re: Right on Commander!

And does the COVAS occasionally switch to a completely different appearance and personality, as an April, May, June, July and August Fool?

This scumbag stole and traded victims' nude pics and vids after guessing their passwords, security answers

Re: John Kettley is a weatherman

Is it bad that even after, what, 30 years? I still found myself humming that to the correct melody?

Scary.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday gaffe leads netizens to 'Microosft' typo-squatting domain

You can probably find out more at Expertsexchange.com or Penisland.com...

Borkem ipsum: Supermarket gifts Thailand a tech fail that will echo down the millennia – and probably choke a turtle

Re: Well...

Percy:

But it sounds LIKE Greek..."What's not Greek, but sounds like Greek?" Hm, that's a good one, my lord!

Prince Edmund:

Look, it's not meant to be a brain-teaser, Percy! I'm simply trying to tell you that I can’t understand a blind word they're saying.

Percy:

Well, no wonder, my lord. You never learned Greek.

LibreOffice 7.1 Community released with user-interface picker, other bits and bytes

Re: Mixed messages.

Well yes, but this comment thread isn't about Windows 10.

Smells like Teams spirit: New platform Viva builds in all the tools Microsoft thinks staff need to succeed

Re: What!?

I got as far as the neologism “collaboration minutes” and threw up a little in my mouth.

Chrome 89 beta: Google presses on with 'advanced hardware interactions' that Mozilla, Apple see as harmful

Re: "a single Share button that calls the operating system's sharing feature"

Ah, so you’re a waffle man?

Re: emacs

Only a matter of time ‘til Chrome implements SystemD.

Or will it be the other way round?

Must 'completely free' mean 'hard to install'? Newbie gripe sparks some soul-searching among Debian community

Re: Debian isn't remotely difficult to install

J27: I'm one of those weird people who genuinely like Gnome 3+.

You are different and strange, and we shall all point at you and laugh derisively.

With depressing predictability, FCC boss leaves office with a list of his deeds... and a giant middle finger to America

Re: ON TOPIC

Yep. Goodbye, and good riddance.

Now, in an ideal world, we'd have Oregon's very own Ron Wyden (D) in charge of the FCC... oh well, I can dream!

Windows Product Activation – or just how many numbers we could get a user to tell us down the telephone

Now, now. He accidentally a word. Or maybe even.

Re: Revenge needs to be had...

Indeed. Interfrastically.

I would venture that he is anispeptic, prasmotic; even compunctuous, to have caused us such pericombobulations.

Apple reportedly planning to revive the MagSafe charging standard with the next lot of MacBook Pros

Re: Wish list

Amen.

As chance would have it, I’ve just today brought a 2011-era MBP back from the dead, with a new (iFixit) battery. It has both your first two features and I’d forgotten how useful the push-button battery gauge is.

Now if only its screen was better than the (dismal even when it was new) 1440x900.

Quixotic Californian crusade to officially recognize the hellabyte and hellagram is going hella nowhere

Re: Could I suggest

Alister: No you've got it all wrong, it's one, two, many, lots.

Oh great, another Internet Troll.

Re: You bastard.

Charolais you can't be serious.

<Bracknell>

A handbag?!?

</Bracknell>

Samsung rolls out new Galaxy S21 range, including extra-lux Ultra

And yet they used an iPhone to announce it.

Samsung - or rather, their PR agency - used an iPhone to tweet a promo for the S21 launch.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/13/samsung-inadvertently-uses-iphone-to-tweet-galaxy-unpacked-promo

The jury's currently out on whether this was

a) a genuine mistake by a more-than-usually-clueless PR droid, or

b) a masterstroke of media manipulation - after all, it's got everyone's attention...

Personally I use an iPhone so I don't care one way or the other.

sent from my Windows® Mobile Device

SpaceX cargo ship splashes down off Florida with science in tow – but what we want to know is how space wine tastes

"Houshton, we have a... hic! problem! We have no canapés!" ?

Flash in the pan: Raspberry Pi OS is the latest platform to carve out vulnerable tech

Stick it on the Windows app store, they're desperate for content. You'll get 5-star ratings, "Editor's Choice" status and a glowing review before you know it. And probably 75% of the app store's users will download it (the 4th guy is a bit harder to convince...)

Extreme Networks misses death-of-Flash deadline, suggests winding back PC clocks to keep its GUI alive

Re: I'm not at all surprised

"OK, one last time. These problems are small. But those problems are far away.

Small.

Far away."

(Marketing droid Dougal shakes his head in utter incomprehension)

"Ah, forget it!"

Pandemic? Check. World in peril? Check. CES is on? Check. So of course Bluetooth Smart Masks are now a thing

Or Jeremy Irons. Or Morgan Freeman.

Or, and this is the one I really want - Brian Blessed.

Apologies for the wait, we're overwhelmed. Yes, this is the hospital. You need to what?! Do a software licence audit?

Re: Sure.....

spireite: As I actually had Covid for Christmas and New Year,

Ask for socks next year. Safer.

"Oh, it's lovely, but you really shouldn't have..."

Seriously though. Hope you've recovered.

Re: Sure.....

"Symptoms of COVID may include breathlessness, fever, headaches, lung scarring, and 500 Exchange Client Access Licenses."

NHS COVID-19 app is trying to tell Android users something but buggy notification appears stuck on 'Loading...' screen

Re: Google Play Services

Well that would be "move fast and break things" vs. "move very slowly and never get things working in the first place". Not sure why anyone thought combining the two would end well.

Pop quiz: You've got a roomful of electrical equipment. How do you put out a fire?

Re: My manager used halon...

John Doe 12: The cabin crew were confused as the masks didn't deploy in the passenger cabin

It was Ryanair. I bet none of you had paid the £0.99* Oxygen Mask fee.

*(£0.99 at time of booking, with approved credit card only. Can be purchased in-flight** for only £199.99.)

**(while stocks last. Availability not guaranteed. In cases where stock is not available, scratch-cards will be offered instead.)

Linux Mint sticks by Snap decision – meaning store is still disabled by default in 20.1

Re: WebApp Manager

Hey, I think you're onto something there.

Maybe with a text entry box at the top of the window, to allow the user to quickly find their WebApps (or even install new ones on-the-fly!) by simply typing a short string? And the capability for the user to pin (or if you like, "bookmark") WebApps they use frequently?

This could really take off. All we need is eleventy bajillion dollars of seed funding and I think this could be the next big thing!

Better battery, LTE and a removable SSD in Microsoft's Surface Pro 7+

Re: removable SSD

You need to design yourself an auto-changer carousel, like those 6-CD changers that used to be installed in cars (or a Wurlitzer jukebox, for those of us even older). With a random shuffle function.

"Oooh, which OS is it going to be today?"

whirrrr-click-CLUNK

"It's... oooh, BeOS. Didn't even think I had that. Still, for productivity and selection of apps, beats yesterday's 'Rumours' by Fleetwood Mac..."

Re: Swappable SSD, but standard?

Downvoted? For a reasonable question about the SSD? Without even bothering to add your own comment explaining why you disagree? You miserable, cowardly sod, whoever you are. Bah.

Swappable SSD, but standard?

FTFA: Also of great interest to the corporate world will be the removable SSD that can be switched out on-site, and those SSDs "will be available to commercial customers through authorized resellers beginning with US distribution."

To me, that reads as "we've managed to find a way to make the SSD a non-standard component, specific to this device. Forget about buying any old NVMe M2 stick and putting it in - you will need to buy the bespoke module from us only at a vast $markup/GB".

Perhaps I'm just too cynical?

Breaking? Microsoft pushes 'News and Interests' with first Windows 10 Insiders build of the year

Re: Dear Redmond

Monopoly anyone?

No thanks. It takes too long and I always end up being the boot. How about Mille Bornes instead?

Facebook appeals ruling that it stole tech. So, Italian judge issues new judgment: Pay 10 times the original fine

A pocket?! What is it?

Singapore changes the rules and will now use COVID-19 contact-tracing app data in criminal cases

Re: "Singapore is a parliamentary democracy"

The Liberal Democrats...

Re: Hereditary leader of the opposition

Didn't the Duchy of Grand Fenwick have the same arrangement in The Mouse That Roared?

Bug? No, Telegram exposing its users' precise location is a feature working as 'expected'

Hush, you'll provoke the bitcoin stans, who will pile in with enthusiastic raves about how it's only going UP UP UP in value, angry denunciations of your motives, and spittle-flecked claims that you're in the pocket of Big Fiat Currency / Goldman Sachs / the Midland Bank / whoever...

G'day mate, I'll take two tinnies, a packet of Tim Tams, some Vegemite, and a bork

(Replying to an old thread 'cos it was linked from the front page)

Because "inverted text" isn't actually inverted at all; it just uses carefully-selected unicode glyphs that resemble upside-down versions of the Latin alphabet. The closest equivalents for 'l' and 't' aren't quite perfect for the illusion, but close enough.

SHRT hits the fan for first-gen Surface Hub users: Jumped-up whiteboard can now be updated via dedicated tool

Re: Surface Hub Install Tool

Where did they get the R from??

Like so many other Microsoft products - they had a dig around in their Rs and pulled out what they found.

Pint because it's NYE.

Surface Laptop Go: Premium feel for a mid-range price, but Microsoft's Apple-like range once meant more than this

Re: Proprietary ports - DIE DIE DIE

True. Fair point, well argued, albeit the laptop under review here is ostensibly a consumer model, and your point about legacy IT stock perhaps doesn’t apply as much...?

Edit: Nevermind. I see from the article that the unit under review is a "business variant". I withdraw my counter-argument.

Proprietary ports - DIE DIE DIE

(and no, that's not German for "the the the")

From the article: ...and a Surface Connect port. The Connect port means you can plug in a Surface Dock 2 (at extra cost)...

Aaargh. Hulk Smash. Why, Microsoft? What's wrong with Thunderbolt, or even USB-C, both of which should carry every signal you need, without locking your customers into your vertical ecosystem?

Ah. Yeah, think I answered my own question there. Never mind, as you were.

Roma, we've had un problema: When every flight's final destination is a date with Windows Boot Manager

Re: You should try a proper airport

Or worse, having to go find the pilot when it’s time to land...

Red Hat defends its CentOS decision, claims Stream version can cover '95% of current user workloads'

Re: The RedHat corporate spinners won't fix this

Wandering a little off-topic here, but I too have often thought that the Reg icons should get modified for the Christmas season, much as the VLC icon is.

Re: The RedHat corporate spinners won't fix this

One of the joys of running Ubuntu in Azure is that it's SSH only. None of the religous wars about which UI to install!

There were *nix religious wars long before UIs came on the scene.

Just as long as in your SSH sessions you're running the One True Editor, Emacs, and not that benighted tool of the godless heathens, Vi...

(Trollface icon denotes I should not be taken seriously. Merry Christmas, peace and goodwill to all, even Vi users)

UK firm NOW: Pensions tells some customers a 'service partner' leaked their data all over 'public software forum'

Re: How thoughtful

bob42: ...great experiance...

Ho ho. ISWYDT.

And you thought that $999 Mac stand was dear: Steve Wozniak's Apple II doodles fetch $630,272 at auction

Re: A couple questions

Why the snide nastiness towards Jake? Did he personally piss in your Cheerios or something?

And in the season of goodwill to all, too? Lighten up and be charitable to your fellow man.