Posts by the hawk

WordPress's Automattic openly tracks websites bailing from rival WP Engine

Welp, if I were starting a new Wordpress site it would now be hosted with WP Engine, just because this goon doesn’t want me to.

Although, realistically, it’s so damaging for the Wordpress brand that it’s yet another reason not to use it in any form.

Multi-factor auth fatigue is real – and it's why you may be in the headlines next

Not helped by organisations that send out spurious notifications on occasion following a legit login… Anyone else had this problem with MS’s online integrated AD? Definitely feels like it could be the basis of a social engineering attack.

Safari is crippling the mobile market, and we never even noticed

Meh

Almost every other browser is based on Google’s Blink. No way extending that near-monopoly ends well.

When forgetting to set a password for root is the least of your woes

We used to hit send on those! One of the few plusses of an open plan office, the boss could see you all sniggering like children so knew it wasn’t real. Newbies learned that lesson *fast*, though.

Glasgow firm fined £150k after half a million nuisance calls, spoofing phone number, using false trading names

I’m sure this will stop them.

After all, what could a company that spoofs phone numbers and uses false trading names to conduct illegal activity possibly do to get back up and running?

Kids can be so crurl: Lead dev unchuffed with Google's plan to remake curl in its own image

Who would use a Google controlled tool by choice?

They’ll get bored in two years and sunset it. Just after it’s got enough people using it to disrupt a ton of important projects.

You can blame laziness as much as greed for Apple's New Year shock

I don’t disagree with you - but it still doesn’t support his argument. If it were about Apple in Britain specifically, sure; but to use UK prices for a company that cares about profits in USD, as evidence of their systemic wrong-thinking is laughable.

Seem disingenuous to compare prices in a non-native currency for the product. Not only that, but to pick the years when the exchange rate resulted in the lowest (2014, Pound worth $1.60+) and highest (2016, Pound worth only $1.30ish) prices by direct conversion. Whether or not you’ve got a point, those numbers are deliberately misleading in the context of the article.

TSB meltdown latest: Facepalming reaches critical mass as Brits get strangers' bank letters

This story brought me so much joy and happiness. It’s just too perfect!

Needless to say I’m not a customer.

London suffers from 'sub-standard' connectivity - report

York was shocking until a couple of years ago

...but things have changed rapidly, with Sky/TalkTalk rolling out FTTP to half the city (not sure why only half), Virgin suddenly deciding to cable a load of new streets (no doubt related), and Openreach finally enabling a few cabinets for FTTC in otherwise connected areas that looked like they were forgotten. So there's hope for London, it doesn't take long to turn things around with the right motivation.

That said, there are still lots of areas in the city where you'll have your 4Mbps DSL and you'll be grateful of that, filthy peasant that you are. So maybe I'm overly optimistic.

Customer: BT admitted it had 'mis-sold' me fibre broadband

What a surprise.

Friend of mine was promised 80Mbps on the website, only to get 2Mbps upon install. Turned out that BT's systems thought his address was right next to the cabinet, when it was actually about 2 miles away (rural broadband, it's a real treat). Doesn't surprise me that they hold other incorrect information, sadly.

Seize your moment, Microsoft: iPad is RUBBISH for enterprise

"Consumer grade"?

I object to this characterisation of "consumer grade" as simple and shallow, "enterprise grade" as solid and powerful. I've seen more rushed, low-complexity, and downright incompetent work done with these allegedly better tools in businesses than I have outside of the workplace. Call them "feature-light" if you want, but calling it consumer software should not be an insult.

Facebook phone app attempts to seize ALL YOUR MAIL

Conspiracy? Nah, cockup.

So, the author of the source article is an idiot. The "separate contacts" thing in iOS is an iOS 6 BETA thing (I can tell by his screenshots); FB is just one more source of contact info, and the iPhone seamlessly combines them where it can, but where there's not a matching email address it cannot, and leaves them separate. Of course you can't delete them, can you imagine what users would say if you could unfriend someone accidentally from your phonebook?!

I wonder if the email addresses thing is similar, too. What if you didn't enter those emails yourself, but they were linked from the person's Facebook account? Once they're made private (as Facebook recently did), they disappear.

Basically, Facebook can't win. They usually get stung for not respecting privacy, but this time we tell them they've made things inconvenient and shouldn't have done it? I loathe FB and suspect their motives as much as the next man, but that source is unfair, uninformed tosh.

Jesus Phone in shock Opera browser benediction

Knew it.

A shock to some, maybe, but the only surprise really is that they overlooked its security issues (proxying secure sites?!) Disappointingly, it's pretty janky. Can't argue with the speed — BLINDINGLY fast, even on GPRS connections — but it really doesn't behave like an iPhone app at all, it's just odd. Here's hoping that they'll make it feel better with some updates, cos right now it's kinda frustrating.

Apple opens SMS door for third parties

Pretty sure that...

...alternate payment methods for content are already banned under the dev agreement. Note the lack of apps asking for PayPal payments to unlock features, for instance. So the X Factor model might be allowed, but direct payment for content is massively unlikely.