Posts by Robigus

The ones who brought you Let's Encrypt, bring you: Tools for gathering anonymized app usage metrics from netizens

Re: Not a wedge, just a service :-(

Perhaps if it's incorporated as a not-for-profit outfit (in the same manner as Signal operates in the U.S.) then it will keep it out of the hands of the perverts, as they can't buy it.

Android 11 lands with plenty more privacy preferences for Pixels and special Google friends first

Sir dictates

Spokesman: "Sir, they're saying that this is a company data land grab"

Sir: "Hmmm, Miss Smith, take a note: Something something something - Privacy - something something something"

Spokeman: "Shall we pass that on to Weasel in marketing to complete?"

Sir: "Excellent"

The Honor MagicBook Pro looks nice, runs like a dream, and isn't too expensive either. What more could you want?

Re: Decimated

Fair enough. The joke icon was perhaps a too subtle indicator of not entirely pedantic intent.

I was referring to its original meaning (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army) ). In a world of righteousness and relativism; anything can mean anything you want it too.

More importantly, other websites report that this laptop runs Linux very well.

Decimated

I read that Huawei's business has been decimated. Is that exactly 10%, or is it thereabouts?

What if everyone just said 'Nah' to tracking?

Re: PiHole

You don't even need a Pi to run it; I run it as a docker container on an old Linux PC that acts as a the household file server.

I agree with other's sentiment expressed here that the web is almost unusable without these protections.

Surveillence Capitalism can't be smothered fast enough.

Mozilla shaves down Beard to a luxuriant mustache, looks for new CEO by end of year

This became darker than I intended.

Frankly as it's an open source browser that doesn't belong to one of the unhealthily voyeuristic self-respect euthenising behemoths of a whitened-teeth "connect and share" dystopia, it gets my vote.

As I just wrote that I have visions of Richard Attenborough holding a mask over a victims face in "10 Rillington Place" saying "Just relax, relax. Connect and share, connect and share".

Multi-account containers are excellent.

I need a pint.

If you're ever lost on the Moon, Ordnance Survey now has you covered for Apollo 11 anniversary

My recollection of Haynes manuals was that any manufacturers special tool requirement could be substituted by a knitting needle and a house brick.

Microsoft buffs up its open-source halo to fine sheen with PostgreSQL GUI in Azure Data Studio

PgAdmin everywhere

Ever since it moved to a web-based interface, things have become much simpler.

Running it as a Docker container has meant it's anywhere we want it. Mac/Win/Linux and yes, Raspberry Pi.

Croydon school rolling in toilet roll after Brexit gift deemed unfit for the Queen's Anus Horribilis

Say what you like about the Germans

They look after their own.

What today links Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram – apart from being run by monopolistic personal data harvesters?

And nothing of value was lost.

Return of the audio format wars and other money-making scams

New phrase. Thank you.

same old shit + infantile spelling = disruption

I see this, you see this, my colleagues see this. Very few of us say this.

I will use your form of the phenomenon from now on.

Have a beer.

The eulogising of The Mother Of All Demos at 50 is Silicon Valley going goo-goo for gurus again

Fighting the slide towards hagiography.

"Silicon Valley is much more Gwyneth Paltrow than it is Ayn Rand"

For that, have an early beer.

Ex-Cisco chief John Chambers: Tech biz bods are 'too arrogant'

Irony

Arrogance? He calls his company "JC2" after the first JC who "died for our sins"*.

* Did/Didn't/Whatever and it's not Jeremy Corbyn. Or Clarkson for that matter.

Where can I hide this mic? I know, shove it down my urethra

Penetrating Kim Jong-il's inner circle.

"His task in the late 1990s was to infiltrate Kim Jong-il's inner circle"

What's the point of a microphone up there? Surely a it's a job for a camera.

Skype Classic headed for the chopping block on September 1

Now using Signal protocol

With more than 2 on the line, Skype has problems. But it's MS, so work think it must be used.

The new Skype, like WhatsApp, Allo and Facebook Messenger will use Signal's protocol, with Microsoft's added ... er ... magic.

So why not use Signal*? No slurping, open source, non-profit. As recommended by security nerds. Works a treat.

* I know, I know. Power, control, brand, the ability to read everything out of your phone and report to the Mothership etc

One two three... Go: Long Pig Microsoft avoids cannibalising Surface

"It's an office runtime for students"

I think I would have killed myself when I was student if I thought my life was going to orbit around Office.

Linus Torvalds decides world isn’t ready for Linux 5.0

Say what you think, not what the joy-sapping bastards tell you to.

Linus' rambling about whether to increment a version number or not are to be celebrated in this PR filtered joy-less age.

Select few to watch World Cup in 4K high dynamic range colour on BBC iPlayer

We tried it

We have a 200mb connection, TV's are on Ethernet (non of this wireless nonsense). Before the FA cup final, iPlayer asked if we'd like 4K, which we did.

iPlayer crashed, repeatedly. Mrs. Robigus and I went to pub, other Robigii stayed at home and switched back to 1080p. That was a recent Sony TV, I hope to be offered the option to try it on the Samsung (which is much snappier and agreeable than Android TV on the Sony)

Car-crash television: 'Excuse me ma'am, do you speak English?' 'Yes I do,' replies AMD's CEO

Re: F1 is shit.

Are you me?

Microsoft has designed an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip. Repeat, an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip

It's about the platform and the data.

It's all about getting data fed into Azure.

Data is king, and we will take these devices and feed our overlords with all the data porn they possibly handle.

It's purely a gateway device to your personal information.

Welcome to the New Age.

Aw, all grown up: Mozilla moves WebAssembly into sparsely furnished Studio apartment

Re: Fun naming files

and a TypeScript file to ti.ts?

Ooh look

TypeScript too.

Jolly good.

Guess who's hiking their prices again? Come on, it's as easy as 123 Reg

The Prophecy!

I knew something was afoot; I had a phone call from them last week. Having never spoken to them before, despite being a customer for over 10 years, a "customer something-or-other representative" rang me.

I prophesied to colleagues that "something's up".

I asked why they were ringing and the poor lady on the other end seemed as clueless as I did (after the scripted waffle had been read and I placed some direct questions)

Bad form.

Facebook is abusive. It's time to divorce it

Re: Facebook has its uses ...

A sort of Facebook methadone?

Stealing, scamming, bluffing: El Reg rides along with pen-testing 'red team hackers'

Great article. I'm sure that the same guilt would have enveloped many of us too.

As you're a beer man, have another.

'Toyota dealer stole my wife's saucy snaps from phone, emailed them to a swingers website'

Surely he could just pray and $DEITY would fix it?

That's how it works, right?

Virgin Media boss warns Brexit could hamstring broadband investment

Re: Pot -> Kettle

I used to love BTCC, then it all went wrong wheel drive. I have a note from my doctor to avoid that sort of thing.

Has it changed?

Pot -> Kettle

My VM bill has risen 34% in 4 years.

That was pre-Brexit.

They engaged with me on Twitter about it once, injecting weasel-feel-good words here and there until I produced maths. Then they went quiet.

Now Liberty Global have taken control of F1, I shudder to think how much vapid waffle and speculation they can wrap around it, before demanding more money for the privilege.

There are some really crap budget phones out there. Vodafone's Smart Ultra 7 isn't

New word

"Dreck".

I've learned something today.

These diabetes pumps obey unencrypted radio commands – which is, frankly, f*%king stupid

It must be enabled to be vulnerable

My son's Medtronic insulin pump had to be explicitly configured to listen to remote instructions for it to be vulnerable.

All of his cohort had remote access turned off by default when setup by the hospital because it was battery thirsty.

Also, the article doesn't mention that pumps are setup with a maximum bolus - another safety feature that prevents little people delivering shit-tons* of insulin.

That's not to say the manufacturers aren't money-first/patient-second yacht-sailing greed-monster tooth-whitened billionaires, but the headline's a bit OTT.

* This is the proper medical terms for large quantities of insulin.

Having offended everyone else in the world, Linus Torvalds calls own lawyers a 'nasty festering disease'

They way of the playground has much to commend it.

Re: outspoken Torvalds; supplying context reduces headline impact.

Re: GPL violators; I'm with Linus; why not just call out the offenders and let everyone know they're twats? No need for lawyers - the world now knows they're untrustworthy twats.

Publish your emails calling them out.

Karma restored. Cheap too; no need for endless meetings with lawyers and ideological SFC egocentrists.

Email proves UK boffins axed from EU research in Brexit aftermath

No faeces Sherlock

My EU research project comes to a close next March. We had already been in discussions about further research work with some of our team.

We'd already understood that we are Yesterday's People and involving us would be possibly destabilising, time consuming and, generally, an all round steaming headache.

This email is the first thing I've seen in writing about what's already freely talked about.

Meh. And double Meh.

We ain't in 1996 anymore, Dorothy: SQL Server 2016 proves it

Re: Well, just download

Moreover our latest EU* project uses PostgreSQL with R and JSON - one simple vagrant file attached to an email flung around the empire has all researchers able to hack and submit.

No licensing problems, no up front costs or eye-watering downstream cavity searches.

* And probably last, I'm told. Perhaps I ought to watch the news and find out why.

Lindsay Lohan ‘happy’ to turn on Kettering

It has the National Volleyball Centre too.

Three non-obvious reasons to Vote Leave on the 23rd

Re: EU is that it is in many ways more Scandiavian than European.

Good idea; we could call it the Nordic League : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_League

Cheap shot, sorry.

As a remainer (with much of my work coming from EU funded projects), I'm pragmatic enough to accept that if we're out, things will be different and we'll just get on with it. If we're in, things will be different, but differently.

Having watched the BBC debate last night, I felt somewhat short-changed by the Remain reps who seemed to engage in far more ad-hominem attacks.

Polarisation of these issue doesn't help anyone; entrenchment ensues with it's shortcuts to Godwin's Law made so much more predictable.

Whatever happens, the future isn't what it was going to be, so embrace it and crack on.

Galileo satnav fleet grows an extra pair

Re: Love the video!

Me too. I couldn't care less if they were putting a chocolate hobnob in orbit, the ignition and lift off are thrilling moments.

Politician claims porn tabs a malware experiment, then finds God

"Perhaps what does not kill you does make you stronger"

He probably has no idea of the irony of paraphrasing Nietzsche.

Radiohead vid prompts Trumpton rumpus

Drunk on cider in charge of a windmill

My teenagers got the cultural references. "Weird but cool" sums up their verdicts.

I thought it poorer for missing a puppet version of Britt Ekland dancing in her pants.

I beg you, please don't back up that secret directory full of photos!

Been there sooooo many times, that I gave up too.

"Defender of the Faith" - radicalised religionised friends son? Check*

Work colleague and his friend fisting each other and more? Check.

Friends wife in latexy/gimpy stuff? Check.

One is almost thankful when a colleagues son's computer just has a bit of porn on it. Normal teenager? Check.

Doesn't anyone just collect stamps any more?

* Nice response from Dad: "Little bastard. I'm taking him out for a pint."

SQL Server for Linux: A sign of Microsoft's weakness. Sort of

Been there, done that, am suspicious.

Having worked extensively on Sybase, SQL Server and PostGreSQL, on Unix/Linux and Windows environments, I hesitantly welcome this news.

Although the tooling for SQL Server is pretty good, I find that encourages users to engage in the 'click dance' of left click, right click, third item down, go. I consult to a multi-million pound company who had kittens when I wrote a script to move a database and it's logs onto another drive, instead of looking at the familiar SSMS interface that "Is the database".

And there are of course the licensing costs; servers get downgraded to poverty editions whenever possible and functionality removed. Every week, a new business problem is answered by "You can do it in PostGres"

Detaching from the tooling encourages clearer abstract thought that actually addresses the objectives. (That of course can apply to any other Visual Studio-eque "I used the wizard" scenario).

There's a reason that my current big EU project is using PostGreSQL; we need employ noone to be the license monitor and we can sleep at night knowing that our back door won't get kicked in (fnaar) by the license police demanding spurious recompense for some arcane technical reason. That and the JSON/HSTORE datatypes and the Javascript/Python/SQL/R et al stored procs.

What's going on with X.org? Desktop software body could lose domain

Re: Pass the Sick Bag!

As soon as I read "reached out" I was consumed with a powerful desire to put my boot through my monitor and send El Reg the bill.

FFS.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Star Wars Special Editions

Re: Am I the only one ...

I saw it a couple of weeks ago. You've missed nothing, apart from some Peter Cushing / Alec Guiness nostalgia. Zap zap noises in space, quasi-religious powers through blood lines. Bollocks like that.

I watched (under some duress) Episode 1 after that. It was awful, just awful.

Reviews are praising the new one. Hopefully it's a better film.

AdBlock blocker biz bought

Oh, dear - he used "that" word - the truth bypass word.

"I believe this is a great time for you users."

By using the word "believe", all credence from a statement can be assumed to be missing. A slippery word used by politicians and marketeers alike as a shortcut to "I have to say this" or "It's insane and I can't back it up with anything even passing close to a sentient rationale, so this word is my Get Out Of Jail word that bypasses the lot."

"Each man has his price Bob, and yours was pretty low."

VW’s case of NOxious emissions: a tale of SMOKE and MIRRORS?

T'was ever thus

Schools teach to the exams and coach students in exam techniques. Education is a by-product of the real aim; results. VW have taught their ECU's the exam technique.

I thought it a given that in a free market (ish) economy, your competitive advantage is wrought by pushing the rules as far as you can to stand out. That gives our cars more power or nicer shapes etc.

Look at F1; these people live for loopholes.

About 20 years ago, a development engineer from a large manufacturer explained to me (over beer, naturally), how they were fitting a throttle damper to prevent tripping the emissions equipment, but it had no use when driving. It could be turned off when the car was being "tested" by journos for a more 'lively' feel. Nice.

I bet Ben Hur only let his horses fart when they were running, so the Editor couldn't smell the magic oats.

'A word processor so simple my PA could use it': Joyce turns 30

Amstrad Syndrome

At home we use the expression "Amstrad Syndrome" to refer to an item that ticks all of the spec boxes, but fails to live up to expectations.

From the old Amstrad tower HiFi days when the devices themselves were loaded with features, but sounded like beans being rattled in a can.

Even so, Amstrad outdid themselves with the CPC and PCW range in terms of usable value.

Have a pint. No reason, just enjoy.

Bruce Schneier: 'We're in early years of a cyber arms race'

Comedy Budget

A $20m military budget?

I understood things to be bad in NK, but that budget's getting them nowhere. Perhaps that's why they touch up their propaganda photos? Then again, they ARE getting nowhere.

Bless their little fluffy-bunny socks.

Trebles all round: The BBC's won this licence fee showdown

Public service remit

Another anti-BBC polemic from Mr. Orlowski.

Of course this article is not designed to actually come to any realistic conclusions, it's a bit of tabloid mock-anger.

Do stop to think, fellow Registerittes*, that you're making valid comparisons; Netflix and co., whilst undoubtedly good at what they do have a very limited remit. The BBC has to cover all sorts, from children's programming (that aren't glorified toy adverts), to those that follow their parent's deities, from sport to education and public engagement.

Sky has managed to successfully convince people that by taking something away that was already available to everyone and putting it behind a paywall with adverts and, I don't know dolly birds? explosions? people with voices that sound like they do film advert voice overs? endless opinions and speculation, stringing it out with chat panels around the content, that they're actually getting a good deal. Wow. And they're considerably more expensive than the license fee.

It's Friday. Forget of all this click bait nonsense and do booze instead.

* Registreens/Regeneestas/Registras* - Hmmm, that thread is possibly more interesting than the written comment.

Goodbye Vulcan: Blighty's nuclear bomber retires for the last time

Tour @Cosford

Some years ago, I took the kids and the old man to Cosford.

They had a Vulcan on display and has I'd been the Farnborough Air Show years ago and had my gizzards rearranged by the power of the engines, I was keen to explain to the boys about it. As we approached it an old boy asked us "Are you with the Americans Sir?", "No", I replied, "I'm from down the road". "Great", he said, "Let's get the kids in". They climbed the ladder in and spent some time in there having directions and information shouted up from the bottom of the ladder.

Fabulous family day, although I never really understood what the American thing was about.

Microsoft's magic hurts: Nadella signals 'tough choices' on the way

End of manufacturing?

Although I don't own one, and have no particular driver to do so, I have used a WinPho on a couple of occasions and found it perfectly acceptable. I assume that Win10 will be agreeable to some extent too.

I assume the MS will work harder on the third party manufacturers to push it in the Google model, rather than attempting to be a halfway house between Apple's "We do it all" to Google's "We do the software*"

* I know about Nexuseseseseses. I have one.

You've come a long way, Inkscape: Open-source Illustrator sneaks up

Re: open source video editor

Kdenlive is a belter.

My kids have used it for their band videos: I'm very impressed with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqw_A1_VhEU

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p07pKe36xnA

The ability to create a project (an intro for example) and embed the project in the main project has been really useful.

With an OS plugin, Inkscape fed a vinyl cutter we had for decorating items belonging to some big UK names, after tracing their logos from bitmaps. Cracking application.