Posts by Roland6

Google Chrome to block file downloads – from .exe to .txt – over HTTP by default this year. And we're OK with this

Re: Not as disruptive as it sounds

But when I realised it only affects mixed content, that's not so bad at all.

But the intention isn't to just affect "mixed content"...

Reading the linked Google articles, I would be relatively happy if it was just about "mixed content", so that all the ad's, scripts and other stuff webpages download (to the browsers cache) just to be displayed, had to come across https sessions because in the main today these get filtered out by AdBlocker/uBlock et al. The problems arise when Google say they will also block content I want, which seems to imply that if I explicitly click on some element that permits me to download an iso, zip, doc, xls, pdf etc. (to my preferred download location) Chrome will by default prevent/block it.

Hey GitLab, the 1970s called and want their sexism back: Saleswomen told to wear short skirts, heels and 'step it up'

Re: Gene Hunt called...

What timing!!!!

Want to "Fire up Your Quattro"?

Gene Hunts Actual Audi Quattro From BBC's Ashes to Ashes Series

Auction starting price £15,000

FYI, the other Quatrro used exclusively in the first series and wasn't shot up, was sold in 2014 for £38,598

Re: Women are more sexist than men

>If men can be told to wear pants instead of shorts

'Pants' has different meanings depending on which side of the pond you're on...

There's got to be Huawei we can defeat Chinese tech giant, thinks US attorney-general. Aha, let's buy stake in Ericsson and Nokia

Re: All Hell Breaking Loose? Now it's only a Matter of a Short Space of Time for Novel Orders.

>New owners of lagging behind systems still has lagging behind systems trumped...

Remember the 5G network infrastructure is only part of the piece; the potentially larger market is the 5G enabled market, which I suspect the US wants a large slice of. By slowing the deployment of 5G infrastructure, buys US companies time to get in on this market, before non-US companies can get too far ahead and established...

Re: Nobody mentioned....

That's because after China, Russia et al. the Republicans are shit scared of a Europe independent of the US; probably one of the reasons why Trump wanted the UK out of the EU in a way most likely to cause offence and discord between European neighbours...

They are probably okay about Samsung, as a result of a behind the scenes US-Samsung deal associated with the Australian-Samsung 5G deal...

Contractors welcome Lords inquiry into IR35 before tax reforms hit private sector but fear it's 'too little, too late'

>Ignore the VAT, the end client reclaims it

You can also ignore the tax you pay, as the client will simply put your invoices down as a business cost and thus reduce their taxable income...

Re: Too Late @Charlie

>One way or another, you are still likely to pay tax if you have an income high enough to pay for cruises.

Depends on how well your PEPs, ISAs and endowments have done - all of these if held for sufficient time and correctly drawn down (ie. not converted to an income), are free of capital gains, income tax and NI...

Goddamn the Pusher man: Nominet kicks out domain name hijack bid

Re: How about some simple logic ?

>Some authority gets to decide ...

Isn't that what the Nominet DRS is for?

BSOD Burgerwatch latest: Do you want fries with that plaintext password?

Re: Surprised they don't use *NIX

There is a difference between relying on a system never going down (ie. unplanned outage) and hence (should have) been designed to be resilient etc. and letting a system run for years without being turned off.

In general I suggest the more reliable and resilient a system is and the bigger the pain of doing an upgrade, the more likely it will be left to run...

Personally, I wouldn't want to be living within a 100km radius or less than 2000km downwind of any nuclear reactor that was running critical systems based on an MS OS and receiving updates every month.

Interestingly, I suspect, if you walk through all the updates to any MS OS (eg. XP, W7) I expect you will only come across possibly one or two that actually fix truly broken OS functionality, that impact the functionality of an application tested on and running on the original OS release.

Re: Surprised they don't use *NIX

SCO was very useful back in the early 90's, it allowed the deployment of commodity hardware into locations where such hardware stood a reasonable chance of being repurposed, given that whilst PC's were 'cheap' compared to pure Unix boxes, they were still expensive for Joe Public...

For some reason putting an unfamiliar or non-MS OS on the box massively reduced the likelihood of the box being either relocated or repurposed to run games etc. - massively increasing systems reliability...

Re: Surprised they don't use *NIX

>It IS "progress" that we should not let systems run for years on end without getting patched.

How does that work with nuclear power stations with a life measured in decades?

The main problem with having systems running for long periods of time is that it really tests the quality of the applications. I seem to remember that many patches over the years have been for applications leaking or hogging memory and generally degrading system performance...

Quick, get the popcorn: Amazon Web Services says Microsoft's benchmarks for Azure are a load of stripe

Need an independent TPC-Cloud Benchmark

Reading this it does seem we need an independent body to run the TPC-C benchmark on the cloud services that people can buy, so all optimisations are ones that you can select through the control panel etc. then we can build a database of readings just as we have with CPU's, broadband, mobile data etc.

ICANN't approve the sale of .org to private equity – because California's Attorney General has... concerns

"ICANN in turn has asked PIR"

I would hope that "ask" and "request" are just euphemisms for "ordering" and thus the PIR board have no real choice (if they wish to keep their jobs) but to comply.

Need 32-bit Linux to run past 2038? When version 5.6 of the kernel pops, you're in for a treat

Re: WS2003 redux

>Because we all learned the lazy habit from K&R, who decided that strlen should return an int (was unsigned int even a thing in 1978?).

I, suspect the opposite was true: signed int was the new shiny in 1978...

Well, I expect others can provide a more accurate answer,

Re: Can someone...

64-bit isn't immune, as the article mentions.

Perhaps a more relevant question is to ask why did Linux adopt the Unix convention and epoch start date..

Re: CLOCK_MONOTONIC

>It is 86 years away. Some people around now will still be alive then.

Better get it sorted if you don't want to risk having a dodgy pacemaker fitted...

Brits may still be struck by Lightning, but EU lawmakers vote for bloc-wide common charging rules

Re: "Mobile device"

>What's a legal definition of a "mobile device"?

It's a good point, I have sets of USB chargeable bike lights, among other 'mobile devices'.

Re: Why state “charger”?

>We even developed standards for language, but hey, that delivered no benefits to anyone, either.

I don't know, it has allowed for much banter across the pond; now should I be using an 's' or is it correct to use a 'z'. The laugh is that the Brit's in deciding on a Standard then decided there were words that didn't conform and so there are legitimate uses of 'z' in UK English where the uninformed would use an 's'...

Re: 'Standards can be revised'

>Which is why these things are better as standards than laws.

The obvious solution is to make the law reference the CEN Standard and word it to allow for that Standard to be revised over time through the normal CEN process.

The only issue is ensuring that companies and member nations that deviate from the Standard can be taken to court for breaking EU law. This was a factor in why many regulations such as those for Banana's were enshrined in EU law; at the UK's request, because as we know all the EU members were totally honest and always played by the rules, especially when dealing with local businesses...

Vendor-bender LibreOffice kicks out 6.4: Community project feel, though now with added auto-█████ tool

You've been able to easily include QR codes in LO for some years now; just install the goQR.me extension (there are probably others if you go looking). Alternatively, just use one of the various QR tools and cut-and-paste the resulting png/jpg image into your LO document.

So I don't actually see the point of this enhancement, other than to p*ss off third-party extension developers.

Re: Paste special HTML

>Please, please, can we change the default when pasting from a Web page to Writer to be "plain text."?

But thats how MS Word works...

It p*sses me off that in Word, when importing from external sources eg. web and other peoples 'creations' the default isn't paste as plain text.

Re: Understatement

It would be better if it could show a journaled view.

MS Office had this, I think it was in versions up to 2K3 but its not in 2007 and later. I forget MS's rational for removing it.

Not call, dude: UK govt says guaranteed surcharge-free EU roaming will end after Brexit transition period. Brits left at the mercy of networks

and Iran...

>The EU will decide nothing...

Well the EU may decide that the operators in the EU27 shouldn't charge their customers (ie. EU27 residents) roaming charges if they visit the UK. This however, is of zero relevance to customers of UK operators wishing to travel to the EU27.

I expect much will depend on just how much and quickly the GBP-Euro exchange rate changes.

It’s not true no one wants .uk domains – just look at all these Bulgarians who signed up to nab expired addresses

Re: Should we just be phasing out .co.uk

> but of cause that then penalises .org.uk ...

People are forgetting .ltd.uk domains. It is noteworthy that in the .uk rules the precedence order for ownership of a domain revolves around .co.uk and .org.uk ownership.

If you have gone to the trouble of getting a .ltd.uk domain then you should get first call on all the other .xyz.uk domains.

Ever wondered what Microsoft really thought about the iPad? Ex-Windows boss spills beans

Re: 10 years!

>The other problem ... is that the OS's between iPad, iPhone and Mac get out of track...

Yes, that's an OEM QA issue, remember for many years MS couldn't keep Office on PC and Mac in sync. and so play nicely with each other...

>I can't remember the last time I turned either of the iPads on

Funny that, in my house the iPads are always being used, albeit mostly for content consumption and social media, with the PC's getting used for serious work ie. content creation (primarily for the user interaction reasons you list, but also because office and other content creation applications on PC are so much better).

>> "Microsoft was a tablet pioneer. The company released Windows XP Tablet Edition in 2003 – seven years before the iPad"

They also could be considered a handheld/pocket/smartphone pioneer with the various WinCE devices that were released in the years prior to the iPhone.

So it would be nature to assume that they knew quite a lot about the pocket/phone environment and the stupidity of trying to cram and access a full Windows desktop into a tablet or pocket format device.

Yet TPTB in MS deemed it was for the best to axe WinCE/mobile development and have one universal OS across all platforms and form factors developed by the desktop bloatware experts, shows just how far removed from reality TPTB in MS were at this time.

But then MS have form for missing tech trends - they were late to the Internet for example.

>I like ten better than seven.

Once you get under hood a bit, I would agree with you, but the UI/UX is p*ss poor; although in saying that, given the changes over the releases, I would not be surprised if within a couple of releases the last vestiges of TIFKAM disappear leaving something that is more akin to its Win7 heritage.

Re: Pen-based what?!

>They didn't even bring a knife to a gun fight, they brought a banana and a small box of aubergines.

Based on previous exploits, MS came the the fight with a powerpoint presentation big on how good the gun they were developing would be, in the expectation that everyone would wait for them to deliver... a popgun...

UK: From 5G in Tiree to the Isles of Ebony, carry me on the waves… Sail Huawei, sail Huawei, sail Huawei

>Gingrich has - perhaps unintentionally - hit the nail on the head when he states that the US is "losing the internet" to China.

Yes, he has also unintentionally indicated that the US still regards "the Internet" as US territory/property/soil. Given the shenanigans at ICAAN and Nominet and the lack of US government action, I wonder how long before the rest of the world forks the Internet and sidelines the US...

Re: So your business sensitive commercial data about a government contract

>Can you get a modem for your laptop that isn't made by Huawei? Probably yes, but you would have to hunt for it.

Well there is ZTE and AliExpress...

Beer: Tsingtao anyone?

Re: Who do we have to blame for this?

>Oh dear - you really have gone down in the world if you have to drink bourbon..

But there is hope, they haven't started on the super-strength lagers, yet...

Use our stuff for free and sell your application? That's Qt. Time to give something back

>Compiling the majority of Qt yourself is pretty simple.

Yes, however remember you are taking responsibility for the support of these binaries...

Re: Annoying

>But I guess Qt never really was as 'open source' as it was made out to be.

But as even Stallman acknowledged 'Free' (and "open source") in the Free Software Movement means 'freedom' not without a price.

I think the use of the word 'free' was a mistake, given how many have interpreted it to mean: without cost.

Boris celebrates taking back control of Brexit Britain's immigration – with unlimited immigration program

Re: This will be wonderful!

>Britain will be full of the world’s top scientists, researchers and mathematicians, all of whom will become experienced bricklayers, plumbers, experts at car repair, and can spend their summers picking fruit, planting potatoes, and making jam so that at least they will have something nice to eat in the winter.

Love the sarcasm! Personally, Boris seems to be wanting to make the UK more of a B Ark as I not met many "top top scientists, researchers and mathematicians" who are in any sense of the word "practical", several I know even have problems with everyday things such as: dressing, ties, shoe laces and brushing their hair.

Re: Article is factually incorrect

>UK population (2020) is about 67.7 million, it was about 63 million at the last census in 2011.

And was circa 58M(estimate) in 1997 ie. before the (Labour) government threw the doors wide open...

Much of the UK's current problems concerning shortage of schools, hospitals, housing, transport systems etc. can be traced back to this daft decision, made entirely by Westminster without asking the electorate and endorsed by every government since, without also making the investments necessary to support such a large increase in population...

Well, not quite unlimited but higher levels of non "top-flight engineers and scientists"...

Remember a year or so back when the government changed the rules over immigrants working in the NHS, effectively creating a new category for them, without any reduction in the size of the pool for the category they were in originally? Net result, yes the NHS got its workers plus lots more non-NHS workers got their visa's...

Like its Windows-noob-stabilisers OS, Zorin's cloudy Grid tool is Linux desktop management for dummies

>Then you come across a touch screen with no keyboard

It won't be long before they do away with the keyboard - deeming Siri/Cortana being sufficient...

I suspect it will be some years before gesture input becomes a reality, given the lack of progress with signed input. Aside: as far as I'm aware MS's only exploration into sign langauge was with the Xbox 360 Kinnect back in 2013.

Re: Why bother with the Windows look ?

>"What is the point of reinventing the wheel?"

Actually quite a lot...

However, I suspect even Brunel would have been pushed to find a use for carbon fibre wheels...

The big challenge is change and encouraging people to change. There are some people who are happy with big change, however, many prefer to remain within their "comfort zone", so the need is therefore to introduce sufficient change for something to be seen as different yet sufficiently similar to what is currently being used for people to be comfortable and actually make the change; next year when they comfort zone has adapted, you can move them again...

Zorin, needs users and preferably businesses paying for the subscription service, hence it needs to appear to be sufficiently similar to what is currently being used to encourage such transfers. As we know one of the big differences between Windows - since W95, and Unix/Linux has been that MS has locked down the GUI because they objected to third-parties developing alternative Presentation Managers for Win3. With Linux, once you are running it, it is just a small step to experiment with alternative GUI's.

>There is nothing wrong with the basic W7 GUI layout.

Which is based on the 'classic' Windows desktop which in turn owes a lot to MOTIF/CDE etc. ie. GUI work done in the 1980's. I found it interesting recently when ElReg ran an article about Win3 and included a picture of the W3 GUI, to note that these 'older ' GUI's actually contain more (consistent) signposting information to the user than the modern GUI's of W8~10.

Accounting expert told judge Autonomy was wrong not to disclose hardware sales

Re: Hardware on the Accounts

>Because they weren't liquid enough to afford it?

Probably, the Accountants also thought of the VAT liability, £100K due in the period (month) the invoice was raised in, regardless of whether the customer does or doesn't subsequently pay.

Re: margins

>where the sale of the licenses is distinct from the ongoing support.

The issue is surely: what is being accounted for as 'software' sales within the constraints of IFRS & IAS18.

For enterprise clients over the years, where I have been involved in the procurement, they have tended to pay peanutsrelatively little for software and hardware (ie. goods), but lots in annual licenses and maintenance and support fees (ie. services).

Sponsored Articles

Re: Sponsored Articles

Thanks, I knew there was a reason but a quick search didn't reveal an answer.

Just that there are times when I want to simply flag a sponsored article so i can find it again; just have to keep doing this outside of ElReg.

Sponsored Articles

Is there any real reason why sponsored articles, such as https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/24/office_365_tenant_to_tenant_migration/

should have comments and/or "add to my topics" options disabled?

Why so glum, VMware? It's Friday. Oh, is it this $235m patent infringement invoice from Densify? Too bad, so sad

Re: Funny

> And Vmware has 20 patents that reference it.

This begs the other question: if they weren't going to cross licence then why didn't they have a prepared case demonstrating why they didn't need to licence.

Teenagers today. Can't take them anywhere, eh? 18-year-old kid accused of $50m SIM-swap cryptocurrency heist

Re: "Soldiers are being told to make use of either Signal or Wickr"

>You mean, apps that have true end-to-end encryption without any back door ?

Well from what tech reports have been released, I do wonder just how much source code WhatsApp and Signal still have in common. Ie. I suspect that the vulnerability was originally found in the Signal source code, fixed (?) and found to still work with WhatsApp...

>So, when it comes to soldiers, the Government wants proper encryption

Not sure if "the Government" wants it or even cares, however I do believe "the Military" are just doing their job in demanding proper encryption and device security...

Free Software Foundation suggests Microsoft 'upcycles' Windows 7... as open source

Re: Do they know an open source Windows would be the death of Linux?

>This would be the same Bloat whose hardware requirements haven't changed in a decade and three operating systems?"

Perhaps you need to click on the "compatible processor" link and perhaps also double check with Intel

So whilst the headline requirement hasn't changed, the specification of which processors actually satisfy the requirements have...

Re: and as of today, windows update

I suspect (would hope) that this last batch of updates are the fixes that were deep in the release system and so it was decided to let them complete rather than try and extract them from the system.

However, just because W7 has gone EoL doesn't mean that some of the things installed on top of it have also gone EoL. I was still periodically receiving fixes to an XP system for 1~2 years after it went EoL all because it was running MS software that hadn't gone EoL. So my expectation is that officially there will be no fixes/updates to W7, but if a fix to a supported MS application requires an OS fix...

Re: A better Idea would be to

>Sure, and it will die just the same way OS/2 died - no applications for it...

Well predicate that on mass market applications...

Arca Noae seem to have found a profitable niche for OS/2.

I think one of the lessons from XP/2K3 EoL and specifically the various versions of embedded OS's derived from XP, is that MS have little regard for markets outside of the mass market desktop.

Keg-xistential issues: Fullers pours away £10m Infor ERP system after selling brewing business

Re: Hardly legacy?

>For Asahi, it is absolutely a legacy system. It is not a core part of their systems, it is a system brought on board as part of the legacy of Fuller's operations, therefore it totally fulfils the definition of a legacy system.

Err well not exactly... The implication from the article is that Fullers have simply sold just the brewery division, not the ERP system. Hence for Asahi, it is a system them have to migrate away from in double quick time. Depending on the details of the demerger contract they may only have a year to move the brewing division off Fullers ERP system.

So in some ways it is worse than legacy, unless Asahi are also an Infor customer...