Posts by Richard Crossley

'Apps for GNOME' site aims to improve discovery of the project's best applications

Re: Just had a look at circle.gnome.org

Blanket - "Listen to different sounds"

Why wouldn't you call it "Ears"?

Perl's Community Affairs Team chair quits as org put on ice by code language's foundation

Re: Software Communism

Upd vote for rant tag.

Thanks for making me smile after a hard day at the mill.

Anyone fancy a Snowmobile full of Bags O'Crap? It'll be on the list somewhere

Snowmobile

"Truck of bits", would be better and more appropriate.

Maybe it was taken already.

Hong Kong to explore its own digital currency and keep testing China’s Digital Yuan

Re: Anonymous

Thanks, I need fewer beers at the end of the day.

Re: Hong Kong to attempt something which competes with the mainland solution

Probably uses the same technology underneath. Probably processed in the PRC as well.

Anonymous, because being anti PRC is illegal now.

EE and Three mobe mast surveyors might 'upload some virus' to London Tube control centre, TfL told judge

Update for TFL TLA

You earned it ------------------------------>

Tragically Failing London. Thanks, that cheered me up.

Hong Kong floats doxxing laws that would let it force big tech to take down content

Re: And Why is Britain Not Enforcing the Two-China Agreement.

How, sending a "gun boat"?

The actual border between Lower Kowloon and the New Territories is Boundary Street. Short of building a wall (Think Berlin Wall) down it and cutting off over 50% of the people in HK, HM Government realized there was no way HK would work in that situation. There were enough problems with Chinese administered Kowloon City before it was demolished.

BTW, I live 250 metres south of Boundary Street.

UK government gives Automated Lane Keeping Systems the green light for use on motorways

Re: Naysayer

Cars reached their zenith around 2005, now it's all intervention and give us more money.

</grump>

Hong Kong teases tech to track residents as they move past QR codes

Re: As clear as mud

A good precis of the system.

You can change the default from 4 hours, I have it set at 2, which is long enough for lunch. I don't go out much these days now either.

Icon, missing the contents and ambiance.

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

Re: Attaching a tractor-fed Epson LX-80 dot matrix impact printer was the height of luxury

"Attaching a tractor-fed Epson LX-80 dot matrix impact printer was the height of luxury (second only to plugging in a floppy disk drive)."

Me, me, me. You are my technology doppelganger, however, you missed a step. On BBC Micro, which it seems like you're alluding to, you needed a Disk Interface, preferable DFS 0.9 with an Intel 8271 floppy disk controller, then a disk drive could be attached.

Ahh just read your bio, "intern 2018". I suspect the venerable Beeb was long gone, I'll mumble to myself. Error excused.

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

Re: Wish list

11 inch is a good form factor for economy class or "British Rail". My Mac Book Air has travelled the World and will continue to do so when travelling is allowed again.

Taiwan’s silicon titan TSMC says three-nanometre tech is on track for 2021 debut and a 2022 flood of kit

Re: So if they have a plant in China...

I think they should. Personally based in Hong Kong, China or rather Chinese Communist Party, seems quite belligerent.

Waterloo! Windows defeated, your sign is screwed. Waterloo! Promise to bork you forevermore

The 18:12 to Paris

The last Euro Star train from Waterloo to Paris was the 18:12. Hmm why is that significant, 1812 was the year Napolean was defeated by the Russians.

Thanks Wikipedia:

Euro Star History

1812 Overture

75% of databases to be cloud-hosted by 2022, says Gartner while dishing on the weak points of each provider

Gartner

Over the years, I've learned to take what they say with a pinch of salt.

Samsung to introduce automatic call blocking on Android 11-capable flagships

Re: How does it work?

Definitely a problem in specific countries. Since almost no-one uses a land line regularly in Hong Kong, spam caller bots target mobile phones.

I've installed call blocking software on my phone and the occasionally successful calls are blocked manually afterwards.

Boeing puts Loyal Wingman robot fighter jet through its paces... on the ground

Thunderbirds are ------>

It looks reminiscent of Thunderbird 2.

So, what exactly are you planning to do with this new PC? Windows Insiders face new questions during OOBE

Re: I can see this in the future

MS Future...

Of course if you don't want MS' offering you'll only be able to install from their App Store where they collect 30% (or something like that). Nope, I'll stick with the Penguin.

What I do with my PC is my business, isn't relevant to MS.

What a Hancock-up: Excel spreadsheet blunder blamed after England under-reports 16,000 COVID-19 cases

Re: Dido (computing):

I wish I'd thought of that. Enjoy -------------------------------------------------->

Re: Old Excel version

Were the PHE offices using something as old as Excel 2003?

It works well on Windows XP!

Re: Data handling for dummies

Dido Harding:

- Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford

- MBA from Harvard

How did she land her current role?

- IT skills?

- Health skills?

- Political connections?

Re: VBA implicated yet?

They hired Dido Disaster, something like this was going to be the outcome from the start.

Toshiba formally and finally exits laptop business

Re: Variable quality

19V, it probably is. Thanks.

Variable quality

I remember the excellent Toshiba Satellite laptops of yesterday year. Dad had one for taking on site. In around 2010, I bought an NB200 netbook, which I still have. Lovely quality, if a little slow now.

In 2012, I bought a Satellite p875-102, oh dear. Within a week it was having the back space key repaired and over the years; the USB ports have corroded, the hinges broken and the speakers disintegrated. Despite being an i7 with 16Gb of RAM it surfs the web at 90C (Tjunction) and has been stood on bricks to keep the underside cool for years.

I guess the accountants were involved in the design.

Mind the airgap: Why nothing focuses the mind like a bit of tech antiquing

Re: I have a few of these babies!

I have an old laptop with a reasonable 1400x1050 screen which I use as an RDP client. It means I can run modern software on a VM in the office and use the RDP client software to connect whilst I sit with the family.

Uber plans to ride out of stable Singapore, move APAC HQ to high-tension Hong Kong

Octopus

Given that taxis don't like crossing the harbour and don't take Octopus cards, which are taken on almost every other form of public transport, it might wake up some of taxi drivers.

Linus Torvalds drops Intel and adopts 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper on personal PC

Re: New PC

Another +1 for Fractal Design. R7 here with no windows either in hardware or software. Best case I've ever worked on.

AMD Ryzen 3900X inside, it seems the Linux Lord and I share several preferences.

Das reboot: That's the only thing to do when the screenshot, er, freezes

Re: Seriously though...

Annotation, I use rather easily visible drawn shapes, but does the same thing

Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman calls on UK govt to legally protect data from contact-tracing apps

Re: Wow

I think she's just woken up.

The end really is nigh – for 32-bit Windows 10 on new PCs

Re: Catalina

I feel your pain.

Catalina

Wasn't it Catalina that ditched 32bit applications on macOS?

Pew-pew woo-hoo! Hong Kong reopens video arcades shut by coronavirus lockdown

Re: Dense city

Hong Kong has done remarkably well, I guess that was the impact of SARS being recalled.

The Hong Kong Government dragged it's heals for quite a while and wouldn't even address the issue of the border between HK and China remaining open when everyone wanted it closed. I believe medical workers even striked over that.

Icon, now is the time for a cold one.

UK COVID-19 contact-tracing app data may be kept for 'research' after crisis ends, MPs told

Updates

Who's to say this app won't be updated to send this information when ever it wants to?

RIP Katherine Johnson: The extraordinary NASA mathematician astronauts trusted over computers

Re: this is a role model

... single mother as well, 3 children and the other challenges. What a contribution.

What a role model

Life in plastic, with a classic: Polymer £20 notes released into wild sporting Turner art

Re: money saving tip

Tell me about it, toilet paper is being stolen in armed robberies now.

The 2020 Mong Kok Toilet Paper Heist

Duped into running bogus virus scans at Office Depot? Dry your eyes with a small check from $35m settlement

It's not enough, not even close

Let's start with 541,247 victims.

$300 per victim

$162,374,100

Now double this to act as a punishment and that's just the fine.

The victims should also have their costs + interest at a punitive level also returned.

25 years of Delphi and no Oracle in sight: Not a Visual Basic killer but hard to kill

Re: "Thinking back to 2002-2005,"

I had a play with Kylix, it sucked donkey balls.

A shame really, because I liked Turbo Pascal, Turbo Pascal for Windows and something modern and Linux based would have been a very useful.

FPC and Lazarus sorted me out though.

Re: Progman Error

Upvote and this for your honesty, it's appreciated -------------->

Atari would love to ship its VCS console but – would ya believe it – there's yet another delay. This time, it's the coronavirus's fault

I've no idea how you do it.

Every time I travel to China (fairly frequently until the middle of 2019), I try and read El Reg and it succeeds. Other far less critical organs fail to reach those behind the Great Firewall. Loving the 100 CNY note!

Beer necessities: US chap registers bevvy as emotional support animal so he can booze on public transport

Re: No beer on the train?

I seem to recall it took about 3 hours. Having moved a way from London I don't make the journey now. I travelled the route between 2007 and 2012.

Traveling back on Sunday required patience.

Re: No beer on the train?

Not can you drink beer & wine on the train in the UK they will sell it to you.

TFL, which is a London centric organisation, only controls the trains operated for TFL. Those would be London Underground, the "Tube" if you like and London Overground, normal trains on specific routes.

In the rest of the UK, the trains allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages. I've occasionally boarded a Friday evening train at Kings Cross and arrived ready to party in Newcastle a few hours later.

Great Western Wine List

Microsoft boffin inadvertently highlights .NET image woes by running C# on Windows 3.11

What's not to like?

* [Program Name] has caused a General Protection Fault in module [module name] at [memory address].

* Limited "resources".

* 16 bit memory models.

Agree with you on slurping/adverts/bloat though.

Smart speaker maker Sonos takes heat for deliberately bricking older kit with 'Trade Up' plan

Re: Sonos said

It's about revenue protection.

Senior health tech pros warn NHS England: Be transparent with mass database trawl or face public backlash

Opt in only

That's the first requirement and even then do you believe them?

If you later demand to opt out, what removes your data and what guarantees do you have it was removed.

Tin foil hat? Maybe, but the data is far too tempting for ne'er-do-wells to ignore.

Revealed: NHS England bosses meet with tech and pharmaceutical giants to discuss price list of millions of Brits' medical data

Re: Once again. It is not *their* data to sell.

Specifically GDPR is an EU directive. The EU requires directives to be implemented as laws in the member countries. The UK implemented this directive with Data Protection Act, 2018

Immediately post Brexit this will still be on the UK Statute. If it is subsequently removed, the UK will not be allowed to and process data pertaining to EU Citizens.

Remember the Dutch kid who stuck his finger in a dam to save the village? Here's the IT equivalent

Re: Once upon a time in Brighton...

That's why when modifying users, groups etc I've learned to have another session open so the change can be tested. Boring, yes but hopefully our collective experience saves a PFY from that gut-wrenching feeling.

Two can play that game: China orders ban on US computers and software

Re: China already has one...

I'm sure that Kylin is based on BSD (earlier versions) and Linux (later versions) so they will undoubtedly have non-Chinese components.

IT protip: Never try to be too helpful lest someone puts your contact details next to unruly boxen

Re: Where were you 20 years ago?

Freezing my butt off in a computer room testing the company's systems for Y2K compliance. Found some bugs, but not much Y2K related.

Icon, mines the one with the Sybase ASE 11 document set. Please bring it, I need wrap myself in something.

Xiaomi the way to go phone: That would be with a 108MP camera by the looks of things

Nokia?

Earlier today, it announced a new R&D facility in Tampere, Finland, which will focus on developing camera technology.

Nokia is quite close to Tampere, I wonder if there's a connection with that decision.

The UK's Civil Aviation Authority asked drone orgs to email fliers' data in an Excel spreadsheet

How does this work?

Excuse me if this is a silly question, but I don't fly drones or planes.

Having the registration database tells the CAA who has a drone, but does it tell them when and where it is flying? Do drones have transponders or something now?