Posts by RockBurner

Torvalds' typing taste test touches tactile tragedy

Re: Bluetooth needed

Cats can't chew radio signals...

People find amazing ways to break computers. Cats are even more creative

Used to live with two young cats and one of them took a liking to the wires running across the desk (keyboard and trackball). Eventually solved by moving to wireless peripherals (back then a very new thing), but I found that if the cable on the MS Trackball was folded back on itself at exactly the right point and pinched with a clothes peg, the internal cables would just about make contact and the device was "usable" until the replacement turned up.

Luckily the current furry resident has no interest whatsoever in wiring. (furballing onto nice clean duvet covers on the other hand....)

Fedora 42 now an official Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distro

Glad to see I'm not the only one unable to get anything linux to work in a Gen2 hyper-v machine under Win11. Seems to be a lot of noise about issues on the internet, but no reliable solutions yet.

Feeling dumb? Let Google's latest AI invention simplify that wordy writing for you

Re: Wait it is taking its input from AI written material?

Not only that - there's a huge amount of verbiage online these days that is so poorly written (by humans) that it's meaning, when taking at face value, is exactly the opposite of the message the writer was attempting to display: ie, lots of people are missing out negatives in their rapidly constructed comments.

Trump fires NSA boss, deputy

Re: What did they really expect?

".. and he doesn’t even drink.."

Wait, what??

You mean he's actually SOBER when he drools out the gibberish that has littered every public appearance he's made for the past 10 years??

Tech trainer taught a course on software he'd never used and didn't own

Re: been on many courses where the trainer has no answers

The hall of residence professor at my University supposedly had the title of "Most boring lecturer".

Allegedly (I can't remember his name, and google is not finding anything relevant), he claimed this title via a 2 hour lecturer on a very obscure part of his field (Economics), delivered while facing the chalkboard at all times and talking quietly in a monotone.

A few years later he was challenged by a colleague from a different university, and, the story goes, he successfully re-claimed his title in devasting fashion.....

.... by delivering exactly the same lecture, in exactly the same style to the same judges*.

Actually a very nice, gentle and kindly old feller, who seemed inordinately proud of his title.

* one can only wonder at the sanity of said judges: to voluntarily enter that room for a second time ....

"Fake it till you make it"

every sodding day....

'Once in a lifetime' IT outage at city council hit datacenter, but no files lost

Re: Looks like it affected their DR site too?

Put it another way.....

While the systems are down, the council can't SPEND any money either....

OpenAI asks Uncle Sam to let it scrape everything, stop other countries complaining

"Office of Science and Technology (OSTP)"

What does the "P" stand for?

Cheap 'n' simple sign trickery will bamboozle self-driving cars, fresh research claims

".. A section of road that had a 50 limit suddenly has no 50 signs at all. ..."

Maybe one of the locals had a big birthday coming up....

Apple drags UK government to court over 'backdoor' order

Re: Put up or shut up

I think that in modern life, the concept of "responsibility for one's own actions" (eg voting) has been proven conclusively to be a fallacy.

The biggest microcode attack in our history is underway

Re: What is this article about again ?

"Bend over and kiss your arse goodbye".

That's what it's about.

Why users still couldn't care less about Windows 11

Re: There is no reason for Windows 11

"... IP-enough to survive an English shower."

Is there an IP level that high??

Microsoft quietly erases Windows 11 TPM 2.0 bypass workaround from help page

Re: Hanlon's Razor

I think that needs updating (or replacing..)

"Never ascribe to stupidity that which can be easily explained by cupidity".

(a motto for modern times perhaps... )

UK gives Openreach £289M for 4 rural broadband contracts in 'gigabit by 2030' push

Sort of similar here.

I'm sure I've posted about this in the past.

We're about 4 miles from the nearest old-style phone exchanges, so our regular BT connection would be about 2mbps (if we had taken out the connection*). However, there's an OpenReach fibre exchange less than 50 yards from the house. But, with only 4 residential buildings within the postcode, we're right at the bottom of OpenReach's todo list.

* When asking the BT customer service representative what we could do to improve that, his response was "Move".

Instead we added an EE 4G account and a TP-Link 4G modem and get something like 50-80Mbps down and at least 20 -30 up: fast enough for MS Teams and video streaming. Luckily there's a mast just the other side of the field out back. :)

Techie fluked a fix and found himself the abusive boss's best friend

Re: The Power of Fear!

I'm the opposite. If there's a flaw within a script/program/config or software, me merely walking by will cause it to find that flaw...

NASA's X-59 plane is aiming for a sonic thump, not a boom

Re: I must admit, beyond basic research I do not fully get the point of the X-59 program

Some very simple, quick, dirty, and probably wrong, but hopefully accurate enough within a given factor of ten, calculations: (figures from wikipedia)

Airbus A380-800: (Trent): Range: 14,800 km; Fuel Capacity: 323,546 L : Rough consumption : 21.86 L/km.

Boeing 747-8: Range: 14,320 km; Fuel Capacity: 238,610 L : Rough consumption: 16.66 L/km.

Concorde: Range: 7,222 km: Fuel Capacity: 119,600 L: Rough consumption: 16.56 L/km

Rough consumption = Capacity / Range.

Obviously fuel consumption figures are very rough and don't take into account variations in weather, cargo-load etc etc: but by the looks of it: by flying far higher, and far faster than other aircraft, Concorde was actually somewhere near par for fuel consumption despite the extra energy output required to achieve those heights and speeds.

It's much higher operating costs (I would guesstimate) were more likely to do with higher training requirements for both air-crew and ground-crew, high maintenance costs, (ie much more frequent work), and the need for much longer runway hence limiting the routes it could do (and a fair few other factors, naturally. All that champagne dished out wasn't free....).

Tech support chap showed boss how to use a browser for a year – he still didn't get it

Re: Screen savers

Standard kit back in the day...

https://cybermotorcycle.com/gallery/electrics/images/Lucas-wiring-smoke.jpg

Airbus A380 flew for 300 hours with metre-long tool left inside engine

Re: Multi-Fail

Yep - always double check.

Just this month I've had an ulcerative eye lesion and was horrified to receive a letter cc'd to my GP from one of the dr's I've seen (never the same person twice... oh how I love the NHS), which was discussing my right eye.

The lesion is in my LEFT eye.

Nolanverse Batmobile leaps barrier between film and reality – but it'll cost you

Wayne Enterprises Experience

I see no-one has even thought about the TLA here.....

(please don't make me spill it out)

Openreach reveals latest locations facing the copper chop

HAH!

feckin hilarious.

As I've said here before, I live less than 100 yards from a fibre "hub", but since the postcode has 4 residential addresses, and 1 business address we are probably the last post-code on OutBleach's list.

Despite being less than 3 miles from a city centre, we're over a mile from the 2 nearest copper boxes too, so "wired broadband" is useless (BT customer operative actually recommended that we move if we wanted operational broadband...). Fortunately we're close enough to a couple of masts that we get usable 4G connectivity.

I don't actually expect to get FTTP at all.

Using iPhone Mirroring at work? You might have just overshared to your boss

Contact with the Walled Garden

".. The Register reached out to the iThings giant for comment and a timeline but did not receive an immediate response. ..."

Has Apple "ever" responded to the Regsiter?? It used to be a trope, nay a well worn truth, that any attempted contact from Vulture Central to Cupertino was treated with disdain (whether deserved or not).

Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed

".. and have the newcomers ritually hung drawn and quartered to stand as an example.. "

Anyone who can stand after being drawn & quartered certainly would be an example to follow!

Ubuntu Noble updates on hold while 20th anniversary teaser bears retro-styled gifts

Had a browse on the Ubuntu downloads page the other day and I was quite pleased to see that the Unity UI/Desktop is officially back.

Currently running 20.04 and 22.04 (with Unity) and upgrading to 24.04 soon, so I hope they manage to sort the issue quickly.

To patch this server, we need to get someone drunk

Re: 'Exit interview'

Have to admit I still have one regret about the exit interview from one of my longer jobs.

The main reason for quitting was the behaviour and attitude of one the senior staff, and although I was able to allude to that issue during the "chat" I couldn't quite bring myself to say out loud "The guy is a [area of genital anatomy of which the first letter is 'c', and the last 't'], and is the reason virtually everyone has ever left this company". Not having the gumption to come out with it openly to the big boss is one of my lifetime disappointments.

However, I think they knew anyway, and the guy was gone within 6 months.

The amber glow of bork illuminates Brighton Station

Digital signage has it's detractors...

I remember when Paddington went "digital" with the platform signage.

Every daily commuter was instantly up in arms about how unfriendly it was because there was no audible notification that the signage had changed - the noise of the flippy-panel signs updating could be heard across the concourse, so everyone could ignore them and get on with other things, until they heard the noise and could then check their trains.

Now everyone is permanently staring at the boards which update silently and without any warning.

My father was most upset about it, and tbh I think it contributed greatly to his slide into luddite-hood.

GNU screen 5 proves it's still got game even after 37 years

Closest analogue to Putty I've found is PACManager ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/pacmanager/ )

Well - it's more of a SuperPutty analogue, but you can drag out the terminal windows to display them tiled on the desktop as you please.

Microsoft decides it's a good time for bad UI to die

This reads like the author had a highly traumatic experience within Control Panel / Regedit once upon a time, and never received the post-Windows care that is still needed.

Don't worry mate, we've all been there, but to blame the tools for the underlying mess, or the flack received after the overseeing manager didn't get what he wanted, is not the solution.

What is missing from the web? We're asking for Google

A search engine that returns results that are relevant to the search terms, not random adverts, sponsored links to completely unconnected websites, and irrelevant guesswork mis-direction to unrelated terms.

In all seriousness: being able to style input fields "somewhat"* would be useful, it would do away with a huge plethora of CSS/JS tricks that developers are forced to deploy to appease the crayon wielders.

* There need to be limits and restrictions to prevent complete user-confusion.

(as a side note, why the hell are the "designers" always more senior in a web-dev agency than the coders??)

Microsoft PC accessories rise from the grave just in time for Christmas

It's odd...

but the Microsoft hardware, I always got the impression, was far, far better than their software.

I used to have both an Ergonomic keyboard and the Trackball (can't remember the exact model names). Both were excellent, robust and reliable, and made Logitech's contemporary offerings look flimsy and knocked together by comparison.

Choose Your Own Adventure with Microsoft 365

Choose your own downfall....

Ah, the nostalgia...

FYI:

If anyone was a fan of the "Lone Wolf" series by Joe Dever (similar thing to the Livingstone/Jackson series), then please be informed that someone has transcribed the books into an App, with the original artworks and everything.

They're currently in the process of doing the Grey Star series too.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=GDV+Games+and+Software

(for Android at least, I couldn't see it on the Apple store).

Looks like the FF series also has an app. (albeit paid for)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinmangames.ffhub

HMD Skyline: The repairable Android that lets you go dumb in a smart way

The screen ... sits very slightly proud of a metal body

I'm sorry... what??

That's an absolute guarantee that the screen will crack with even a very slight drop.

I suppose if they're going spend moolah making a phone that's easily repairable, they need to recoup moolah by making sure it needs frequent repairing.

"I'm oot".

Dangerous sandwiches delayed hardware installation

My Godfather was "someone important" in the RAF in the late 60's/early 70s and living the life of Riley in a forces-supplied home (think Georgian mansion!), with a small support staff.

One morning a package turned up with what looked like a small black wire poking out of it....

Cue bomb-squad's immediate arrival, evacuation of said building, a very nerve-testing movement of the suspect package out of the building, followed by some impromptu garden re-modelling.

When the dust settled the remnants were inspected....

It was a hairbrush.

Obviously, this being the RAF, the offending item was immediately mounted in a lovely wooden and glass frame and decorated his office for the rest of his life. :D

Turns out the hairbrush was actually a joke gift sent by a friend and was just not very well wrapped!

(they obviously didn't use a huge amount of plastique to "detonate" the package because the wooden body still had a fair few bristles still embedded in it. I remember repeatedly chuckling about it whenever the story was told)

For the record: You just ordered me to cause a very expensive outage

Re: Sometimes, when the stars & planets align just right ...

This (sort of) happened to me, just minus the misfortunate wife and the initial rejection.

Heading for an interview in London, on a somewhat tired commuting hack, the throttle-cable snapped (bit of a brown trouser moment as I was doing (limit + xx) mph in the fast lane at the time), and I had to divert rather hurriedly to the hard-shoulder of the M40.

20 minutes of swearing later and I'd jury rigged the cable well enough to make the bike rideable and hammered on to the interview.

My filthy hands were commented on (no time on arrival to clean up properly), but my explanation was accepted and my ability to successfully troubleshoot went down well. (ironically that same attitude got me thrown out of said job a couple of years later... some people are impossible to please).

Screwdrivers: is there anything they can't do badly? Maybe not

Re: Not screwdrivers but...

I love it when typos actually make sense... :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axion

Not a Genius move: Resurrecting war hero Alan Turing as your 'chief AI officer'

The normalisation continues....

I can't be the only person who sees stuff like this and is utterly and completely un-surprised any more.

Are there any more lows to which people can fail to stoop?

Boffins build world's largest astronomical digital camera to map the heavens

"...every 20 seconds, it can take a photo with a 15 second long exposure time."

I'm guessing around about 5 seconds....

Alibaba signs to explore one-hour rocket deliveries

Re: NORAD is going to love this - not

They're all delivery rockets...

What's brown and sticky and broke this PC?

Re: Ahhh the joys

Whose head?

Firefly software snafu sends Lockheed satellite on short-lived space safari

Re: Obligatory....Browncoat Icon

I was going to comment that the code obviously needed a good "scrub", but wasn't sure if that might have been a somewhat overly oblique cross-reference.

'Crash test dummy' smashed VIP demo by offering a helping hand

Re: Ouch

" It's like they have no clue that the user doesn't already know what they know"

This goes for pretty much every one I have ever encountered in any technological scenario whatsoever.

Having extensive knowledge about a subject seems to confer on any given human the automatic assumption that everyone else has that knowledge, it takes a particular mentality to get over that hurdle and be able to explain things to those without the knowledge.

I'll freely admit that I suffer from it myself, and often find it very difficult to "think down" to the level required to explain complicated things without sounding incredibly patronising.

Curious tale of broken VPNs, the Year 2038, and certs that expired 100 years ago

Re: What' time is it, Eccles?

Ah, great stuff....

For what it's worth, there's a lot of Goon Shows now on Spotify.

BOFH: Hearken! The Shiny Button software speaks of Strategic Realignment

Re: The PFY outshining the master?

"...spinning fan"

I think you meant "rotating localised-atmosphere distribution device".

Microsoft seeks patent for tech to put words into your mouth

Re: Theoretically speaking?

"it means that entire disciplines could be locked down by opportunists without the need to actually implement any demonstrable invention"

Yup - that's exactly how the US patent system works. Patents are only tested for originality or practicability when they are challenged by either a competitor, ie a holder of a similar patent, or when the holder uses said patent to crush (read: overwhelm and buyout) an "imposter" who actually gets something relatively similar to work.

From a UK perspective it is indeed a very, very odd system: only of any benefit to lawyers (guess who wrote the rules...)

Techie climbed a mountain only be told not to touch the kit on top

Re: I see what you did there!!!

Also - no Blackadder references.

BOFH: Looks like you're writing an email. Fancy telling your colleague to #$%^ off?

Re: "coloured pencil office"

Makes for a good woodsaw too.

OSIRIS-REx's stuck asteroid sample canister finally cracked open by NASA

Re: Just wondering....

You mean duct tape?

Poor communication led to complete lack of communication

If only we had the option....

"Ever found yourself in the middle of a mess that could have been avoided if only someone had said something?"

SOP for any dev working in an agency....

shirley?

Huawei prepares to split from Android on consumer devices with HarmonyOS Next

Re: ''split'

"But the one idea everyone seems to want to steal is the walled garden and its entrance fee"

Welcome to Capitalism.