Posts by dak

EasyJet flight loadsheet snafu caused by software 'code errors' says UK safety agency

Re: Weight of passengers

ATR-72 has a tail prop. We always had to wait until the cabin crew had nipped out and hung it on the back before we could stand up.

Missouri governor demands prosecution of reporter for 'decoding HTML source code' and reporting a data breach

Re: Dare I admit to the govenor ...

That is exactly why I am now involved in party politics.

Config cockup leaves Reg reader reaching for the phone

Re: When forgetting 2 simple characters (-r) means a long walk

Three characters, Shirley?

Microsoft's problem child, Windows 11, is here. Will you run it? Can you run it? Do you even WANT to run it?

Re: This will be the fourth...

And the irony is that by Windows 13 (3 versions after "the last Windows ever") it will probably be a Windows wrapper around a Linux kernel and GNU support structure.

Re: I defenestrated myself a while back

Why not break her in gently - the X1 runs Mint brilliantly.

This will be the fourth...

...generation of Windows that I will happily ignore, having switched all of our computers to Linux some years ago.

Life is soooo much simpler now.

Want to feel old? Aussie cyclist draws Nirvana baby in Strava on streets of Adelaide because Nevermind is 30

Re: 30 years ?

Whoooosh!!

Think you can solve the UK's electric vehicle charging point puzzle? The Ordnance Survey wants to hear about it

The answer to the charging problem...

...is diesel.

BOFH: Here in my car I feel safest of all. I can listen to you ... It keeps me stable for days

Damn!

I signed a new contract yesterday and completely forgot to insert clause 85e.

Re: Unlike the £1 coin...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQBPQak2Ef4

Go to L: A man of the cloth faces keyboard conundrum

It was my birthday

Airline software super-bug: Flight loads miscalculated because women using 'Miss' were treated as children

No SQA?

A conscientious Test Manager should have done a full SQA on the supplied software, showing it conformed to local requirements.

However, testing is expensive, isn't it, especially when you are dealing with throw-away items such as aeroplanes and passengers.

Re: Who was the developer?

So the software wasn't tested before use, then?

Tut, tut.

Why yes, I'll take that commendation for fixing the thing I broke

Re: Experience is the best teacher

I did it, brought down an entire bank.

(Not my code, and it had a happy ending.)

Pizza and beer night out the window, hours trying to sort issue, then a fresh pair of eyes says 'See, the problem is...'

It's not a pound sign. Not anywhere that uses pounds, anyway.

Re: Proof reader

Trainspotting was set in Leith, Edinburgh

$900bn coronavirus stimulus bill includes $600 for most Americans, $50 in monthly internet subsidies, $1.9bn to help rid the US of Huawei kit

Re: Outraged of Suffolk

Is there not an apostrophe in King's?

Adiós Arecibo Observatory: America's largest radio telescope faces explosive end after over 50 years of service

Re: 60 years old? -- Time to build a new one

Absolutely. Bloody kids!!

Panic in the mailroom: The perils of an operating system too smart for its own good

Re: 50 years ago ...

Agreed, though I spoke to Plusnet a couple of hours ago to report a line fault and really struggled with the Geordie, despite living only about 60 miles from Newcastle.

Re: That reminds me..

I had two cheques for small amounts last week from British Gas.

I have no idea why.

HP: That print-free-for-life deal we promised you? Well, now it's pay-per-month to continue using your printer ink

IANAL, but...

does this not constitute a "post-contractual obligation", and therefore unenforceable in the UK?

NSA: We've learned our lesson after foreign spies used one of our crypto backdoors – but we can't say how exactly

Re: How do you avoid US spy gear, it is everywhere.

Microsoft don't record ANYTHING that my computer runs or does.

Nor those of any of my family.

Excel is for amateurs. To properly screw things up, those same amateurs need a copy of Access

Not Just Acces

Way back last century, the toolroom in the factory where I worked had a god-awful scheduling system and a very enthusiastic tooling engineer, who brought in a copy of Superbase and built his own system. It worked quite well for them and kept entirely under our radar.

We (DP) found out about it 55 weeks after it went live, and about 30 weeks after the engineer went on long-term sick. He had, of course, omitted a full date specification and the previous year's jobs were popping back up again. Could we please, fix it for them, please, please?

Of course, we couldn't, at least not quickly.

Part of the reason that it took a couple of weeks to alert us is that for a while the toolroom was legitimately quoting delivery dates into the factory in week numbers up to 66.

Amazon Lex can now speak British English... or simply 'English' if you're British

Scottish Elevator?

I don't recall ever being in an elevator here - I've used lifts often enough, though.

The power of Bill compels you: A server room possessed by a Microsoft-hating, Linux-loving Demon

Re: Power!

Thank you for "fabricobble", I knew there had to be a word somewhere for that important activity.

We've heard some made-up stories but this is ridiculous: Microsoft Flight Simulator, Bing erect huge skyscraper out of bad data

Storey not story

See title

Oh what a feeling: New Toyotas will upload data to AWS to help create custom insurance premiums based on driver behaviour

My old car is pure Lotus (apart from the Ford, Triumph, Riley, etc. parts).

Refurbishment continues, it should be my daily driver again later this year :)

Steve Wozniak at 70: Here's to the bloke behind Apple who wasn't a complete... turtleneck

Re: Apple

Thank you. The only thing I could think of was a cap gun, but you have explained it perfectly.

Re: Apple

Could someone please explain why "putting a cap" in something may be thought undesirable? I am completely baffled.

I got 99 problems, and all of them are your fault

Re: Rudest, Dumbest - same thing no?

P&T in Luxembourg once sent me an email to tell me my phone line had been cut off. Which it had - a fortnight before they deactivated the email service.

Ever wonder how a pentest turns into felony charges? Coalfire duo explain Iowa courthouse arrest debacle

Re: "the team said the plod were actually rather cordial"

Roon' aboot here, it's "ra polis".

What evil lurks within the data centre, and why is it DDoS-ing the ever-loving pants off us?

Re: That said

Please use the correct past tense form - "sh@t itself".

Thank you.

Re: Makes sense both ways

Did they admit it ever, or was the awareness their culpability beaten into them with a clue stick?

As is usual practice.

Nokia 5310: Retro feature phone shamelessly panders to nostalgia, but is charming enough to be forgiven

Re: cool

What size of a bag do you have, that you can carry furniture about with you?

Re: This is NOT that suitable for older people

Oh, yes it is.

I bought one of these last week for my 92-year old neighbour. It was to replace an Alcatel which had recently in turn replaced his old Nokia which had died.

The Alcatel was rubbish and none of us could make it work properly. I switched the SIM and the Nokia burst into perfect life immediately.

Without any instruction, he sent his first ever text on Friday. It's a great little phone.

Brit MPs vote down bid to delay IR35 reforms, press ahead with new tax rules for private-sector contractors

Re: Worse than that bloody virus

Hmmm...

IR35 was promulgated by a Labour Chancellor whose doctorate was in the history of the early Labour Party. It was introduced by "Red" Dawn Primarolo.

Its stated aim is to enforce fairness in the labour market. It has taken 22 years to implement, has been disastrous where it has already been implemented, doesn't work, can't work and will seriously distort and damage small businesses to no advantage whatsoever. It has been hammered through Parliament with no regard to warnings from multiple agencies.

Seems Socialist enough to me.

Worse than that bloody virus

My MP assured me several times that he understood the issues and would support any measures to halt it. Then he voted against the amendment last night.

This will have a worse and longer-lasting effect on the economy than SARS Cov-2. At least that is going away now and the panic reaction by the Government was just that - panic. But IR35 is a definite course of action put in place by a 20th century socialist government and will be hindering business for a very long time.

After 84 years, Japan's Olympus shutters its camera biz, flogs it to private equity – smartphones are just too good

Re: Sorry to see them go...

My last film camera was an Olypmus APS - beautiful little piece of jewellery. I must have the last couple of rolls developed sometime.

My Saab has just come out of lockdown to perform faultlessly on a 650 mile round trip. Reliability built in.

Ex-CEO of fintech biz Wirecard arrested over missing money: Vanished €1.9bn may not have existed in the first place

Amateur

German banks and precision, eh?

I worked for one that was in the process of becoming a German bank from another, geographically-near location. Not only did one of their German customers erroneously deposit €1,3Tn (trillion) in two transactions, the bank actually advertised the fact.

Their announcement of the mistake a couple of months later was rather quieter.

Faxing hell: The cops say they would very much like us to stop calling them all the time

Re: Also works the other way round

When you get a wrong number, give the caller the number of the holiday company's competitor. I know from experience that will sort the problem PDQ.

Re: I called the cops

I seem to remember that was called "phreaking".

Living up to its 'un-carrier' slogan, T-Mobile US stops carrying incoming calls, data in nationwide outage

Re: What's an "un-carrier"?

I saw that article, it didn't explain anything, just had a boss complaining about it.

So it's just marketingspeak, then, not anything significant?

What's an "un-carrier"?

Please see title

In Hancock's half-hour, Dido Harding offers hollow laughs: Cake distracts test-and-trace boss at UK COVID-19 briefing

Re: what cake? it is a cherry on a shit sandwich

You're right, it takes a special kind of talent to make Theresa May look good.

Developers renew push to get rid of objectionable code terms to make 'the world a tiny bit more welcoming'

Re: Master changed, really?

Because the root doesn't have branches and is usually invisible?

UK MPs to off-payroll workers: Delay IR35 reforms until 2023? You wish

It's usually not our choice to use a Ltd Co. I no longer know of any recruiters who will deal with sole traders, as HMRC have been pressuring them for many years to only deal with companies.

So HMRC are the architects of the very problem they are now complaining about.

SAP proves, yet again, that Excel is utterly unkillable

Re: Yeah...

Why are you still with that accountant? Our current one is about to have a rude reminder of just who the customer is on our relationship...

Mirror mirror on the wall, why will my mouse not work at all?

Re: Mice

I know someone who took four battery-powered soft toys back to the shop because they wouldn't sing their song past the first line before noticing the little pull tab.

Florida man might just stick it to HP for injecting sneaky DRM update into his printers that rejected non-HP ink

Re: And yet...

Just checked - £350 on eBay - I did get a good deal, didn't I?

But cartridges are less than I thought - £10.50 for high-capacity blank.

Oh, and Brother's Linux drivers are very good.