Posts by Badvok

Consumer campaign to keep receiving printed till receipts looks like a good move – on paper

Fade Away

At least digital receipts don't fade away and become useless when you need to return an item. Very few paper receipts will actually survive until the warranty runs out on most items.

Want a good Android smartphone without the $1,000+ price tag? Then buy Google's Pixel 3a

Headphone Jack Fine

Just wanted to point out that the headphone jack on my 3a works absolutely fine, excellent sound quality, the reviewer possibly had a dodgy one.

LG G7 ThinkQ: Ropey AI, but a feast for sore eyes and ears

Re: LG G7 ThinQ: Raising a StinQ.

Oh dear looks like I upset a couple of LG fans who haven't heard of the bootloop problems with the LG Nexus 5X, and the LG G4, and the LG G5, and the LG V10, and the LG V20. All caused by the same issue. LG is definitely one to avoid if you want something that lasts longer than a year.

Re: LG G7 ThinQ: Raising a StinQ.

On past experience I wouldn't expect the phone to last long enough to require any updates after a year.

Ford giving electric car investment a jolt to the tune of $11bn

Oh no, please no!

Can't we please forget this electric car nonsense, you'll never beat hydrocarbons for energy density and refill speed and convenience. Let's go with carbon neutral sustainable hydrocarbons that will work with all our current ICE based cars. (FYI: http://soletair.fi/ )

Merry Xmas, fellow code nerds: Avast open-sources decompiler

"If you're at the point where you need a decompiler, it's because you have no access to the source and you never will"

Says someone who has obviously never found a bug in a compiler.

Google asks browser rival Vivaldi to post uninstall instructions

"Erm, just like Google doesn't."

Andrew why did you post the link to Chrome install page rather than an advert for Chrome? I thought the article was talking about adverts.

Interestingly, I turned my ad-blocker off in Firefox for a few minutes and could not get one single advert for Chrome to appear across a number of sites, so I'm not sure how you verified that Google don't follow their own rules in adverts.

What will drive our cars when the combustion engine dies?

Combustion engine dies?

It'll never happen! The combustion engine will live forever, or at least until a mechanism is found for conveniently storing energy at a higher density than hydrocarbons. Of course we will probably move away from mining hydrocarbons but there are multitudinous ways of making them from sunlight, from growing stuff to direct catalytic conversion of water and CO/CO2.

Smart meters: 'Dog's breakfast' that'll only save you 'a tenner' – report

Re: Common sense is free!

Common sense may be free, but it is far from freely available.

Take 'er-in-doors as an example, always turning off the 7W LED hallway light to save energy while wandering around chatting on the phone leaving the 2KW iron on the ironing board heating up the utility room.

Intel Pumageddon: Broadband chip bug haunts Chipzilla's past, present and future

Re: Virgin Media Tivo

@phuzz they've fixed the modem mode issue so you can now use your own router to mitigate the issue somewhat (as I do).

UK government's war on e-cigs is over

Re: No vaping in the workplace please(@Mephistro)

"Following that logic, everybody should be prevented from breathing"

Strange you should say that, I don't believe there is a law against it but it is generally considered socially unacceptable to breath out directly into a stranger's face. This is exactly what vapers do, but they exhale a cloud that carries their exhalation a lot further, effectively breathing straight into other people's faces.

The cloud turns invisible far quicker than it actually dissipates which leaves vapers with the misconception that their potentially toxic exhalation isn't likely to affect others.

Re: No vaping in the workplace please

"so god knows what it was pumping out"

It was pumping out exactly that, damp! If from an ex-smoker who actually inhales it will also be laced with whatever concoction of pathogens they currently have in their lungs.

Jodie Who-ttaker? The Doctor is in

I'm disappointed they didn't go for a mixed race african/asian, one armed, bi-polar, lesbian just so they could tick off a few more boxes.

Blinking cursor devours CPU cycles in Visual Studio Code editor

Microsoft vs Apple - ding, ding, seconds out ...

Only appears to be a problem on macOS

DNS lookups can reveal every web page you visit, says German boffin

Yes, I think pretty much every OS you could possibly be running has a local DNS cache along with pretty much every home router.

They must have explicitly turned off all caches to get this analysis to work.

Nest cameras can be easily blacked out by Bluetooth burglars

Erm ...

One thing that should perhaps be noted is that Nest cameras send a continous stream of live images to the cloud and notify the owner as soon as connection is lost with an image of what the cam last saw (and the video to that point can also be reviewed).

So unless the camera is approachable unseen to within bluetooth/jammer range or the internet wires/cables are out of sight it is likely the miscreant has already been snapped and the evidence safely stored out of reach.

4K-ing-A! Roku bangs out broad range of new streaming boom boxes

... boom boxes?

Headline written by a millennial? For a moment I though Roku were branching out into new stuff.

Here WeGo! Google Maps rival drops Maps branding

Check out here-we-go.org, I suspect the site is about to get a lot more traffic.

Wales gives anti-vaping Blockleiters a Big Red Panic Button

Invisible != Harmless

Wrong, the vapour turns invisible but it doesn't dissipate/disappear, it lingers just as long as the harmful fumes from burnt tobacco linger.

To me it is akin to walking near someone who has poured an entire bottle of aftershave over themselves, who really knows what harm all those aerosol compounds can cause, only time will tell.

Samsung: Don't install Windows 10. REALLY

Can't believe you're getting so many downvotes for stating the obvious. I also have Windows 10 running perfectly fine, including all the laptop special function keys, on a NP-RF511 though officially not supported.

And yes I've swapped out crappy wi-fi modules on a number of laptops over the years, even a PC World Tech Guy should be able to do it.

Illegal drugs and dodgy pics? Nah. Half the dark web is perfectly legal

Re: specialist software and expertise

"Yeah, so they know how to use a TOR browser and a port scanner... whoop-de-doo..."

I think you'd need a bit more than that to find even a reasonable percentage of the available anonymous sites, or does Google now index this stuff too?

Just how close are Obama and Google? You won’t believe the answer

Re: "We've been doing this since before the US was a country"

@Pascal: "Well we've been murdering each other since the dawn of Mankind, but I do believe that public opinion on that is pretty much Not Good."

Hmm, I think you need to look for a better example, especially where the US is concerned since they still routinely murder people in the name of law, religion, oil or trade. It was the biggest hypocrisy in Catholicism that woke me up as a child, that the Catechism allowed for killing at the behest of the people running your government while still stating that killing was a mortal sin.

Google splats more bad Android security bugs with patches your mobe will probably never see

Re: Hype?

Most are pretty unlikely since they rely on side-loading a malicious application, or receiving dodgy MMS messages (unlikely due to the expense that would be incurred by the sender). Only a couple appear to be exploitable by browser misdirection to a malware site or MITM attacks.

What is interesting is that quite a few of these are Linux Kernel issues and binary device driver issues which aren't in the strictest sense Android itself and could apply to any device running the same Linux kernel or device drivers.

Joint Committee on UK Snoopers' Charter: Make like a dictionary and give a definition

Re: Header image

And you sir are exactly the sort of person they want to rid the world of thus justifying their actions. You hide behind a forum handle, degrading and insulting people based on their looks.

She may be a horrible person, her actions certainly are, but deriding someone's appearance is pathetic.

Lights out for Space Vehicle Number 23: UK smacked when US sat threw GPS out of whack

Re: 'precision docking of oil tankers, as well as navigation'

That 13 microsecond error can equate to 4km. That can be rather significant when you have to start slowing down 25km away from the dock and could certainly be the difference between stopping or ploughing straight in.

Three: We won't hike prices if you say yes to £10.5bn O2 merger

Less competitors = lower auction revenue = lower network costs = lower consumer prices or higher margins, take your pick.

It's certainly obvious where Ofcom stand and it is NOT on the side of the consumer.

For fsck's SAKKE: GCHQ-built phone voice encryption has massive backdoor – researcher

MIKEY-SAKKE are they TAKKING THE MIKEY?

See title.

Doctor Who: Oh, look! There's a restaurant at the end of the universe in Hell Bent

What you mean with two women who aren't teenage, lesbian or timelords? And only one of whom could possibly be considered mutated.

Sneaky Microsoft renamed its data slurper before sticking it back in Windows 10

Re: FTFY

I know I'll probably get loads of downvotes for even asking this but has anyone actually checked whether any of this information actually does get sent anywhere if you don't sign up to the 'Let us see everything you're doing programme' or as Microsoft call it the 'Customer Experience Improvement Program' ?

PM wheels out snoop overseer minutes before latest snoops' charter bid lands

Oooh look, someone's made a Strawman with twigs for legs so that it is easier to knock down than any other.

Sennheiser announces €50,000 headphones (we checked, no typos)

Check out Beyerdynamic's range, I have the DT770 Pros and they are the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn even when wearing glasses.

How Microsoft will cram Windows 10 even harder down your PC's throat early next year

Re: Evil

No, I meant what I said, Windows 7, not other ancient UIs. Though of course you should note that many applications written for those ancient systems you appear to like do actually still work on Windows 10.

Re: Evil

FlameButt: "What gets me the most about that 'upgrade' comment is (and no-one else seems to have mentioned it yet) is the look and feel of the new OS!"

Ah, so you haven't actually used Windows 10 then, fair enough. When you do get around to looking at it you'll find that you don't have to use any of the new UI stuff, in fact you can pretty much make it look and behave just like Windows 7. This was the big U-turn people were talking about a little while back that I guess you missed.

Re: Evil

" Win 10 doing a neat BIOS update"

Now I've heard everything, Windows 10 is able to flash your BIOS without even prompting you - Wow! Next we'll be hearing that Windows 10 can actually modify the user's DNA!

Re: Evil

"Forcing an update to an operating system that's incompatible with many people's software?"

Whereas I'm sure there are a few obscure bits of software that might not work, I certainly haven't found any. For me, with all the developer tools and bespoke apps I run, I can't say I've really noticed any difference going from 7 to 10. I didn't even have to reinstall anything following the in-place update.

That's all it really is you know, just another update, not really a new OS. Yes they've added a few things and tweaked a few bits under the hood but backwards compatibility is not broken for anything Vista compatible onwards, everything that worked for me under 7 works just as well under 10. Though of course I'm not still holding onto any tools from that long ago.

TalkTalk downplays extent of breach damage, gives extra details

Re: Evidently

Oh well learn something new every day, since the major two, Visa and Mastercard, only ever use 16 digits and most online shops only accept 16 I made a false assumption that it was standard :(

Oh dear, how poor maths ability is these days, looks like some can't even do basic maths.

"sorry but birthdate is incredibly sensitive and useful for identity theft"

Yes, it is one of the factors used in identity theft, however given a full name to work from it is very, very easy to obtain from public records.

Burned: British Gas customer info hits Pastebiin

"But before they had an email address and a password and afterwards they have an email address, email password, BG password, full address, DOB, and utility bills. See why it's a problem?"

Nope, not giving a toss about protecting online BG info is not the same as being dumb enough to use the same password for important things, so no they wouldn't get email password. And all the rest is freely available public information anyway. And any organisation that accepts a printed utility bill as proof of anything these days is just asking for trouble.

"How on earth do you solve this problem for people who don't give a toss? Maybe BG shouldn't let them have online accounts."

What? Just because I really, really don't give a toss who knows how much my Gas / Electricity bill is I shouldn't be allowed to have an online account?

Note: no bank account or card details are accessible via online BG account but a hacker could of course add their own card and pay my bill for me :)

Europe fails to ban web 'fast lanes' – what now for Euro net neutrality?

That's got nothing to do with net-neutrality, all that would have still been possible with all the amendments because ISPs would still have been allowed to manage traffic on their networks, including cross-connects. There was no amendment that said that they had to provide the same bandwidth from other parts of the internet as they do from within their own zone.

Re: WANTED

You could have all that now if you wanted, all you need is someone with a few spare $blns and you can build your own open, free, non-commercial internet and let everyone use it. However, in the real world, I think we'll have to stick to having commercial interests invest money in the system and for some inexplicable reason put up with them expecting some kind of return.

"Yes but what happens when you spend big bucks for your Porsche and then you try and drive down a road that is 'sponsored' by Toyota."

You don't, you choose a road that is 'sponsored by Porsche' or that is neutral. Your analogy fails because you assume you only have the choice of one road, while in real life this is often the case it is certainly not the case when it comes to ISPs.

Re: Would it have been too much to ask

@Markablejones the biggest point you and many others miss out is that in Europe we typically have competition between ISPs unlike in large parts of the US. If an ISP did start favouring one service over another then users are likely to notice and if they don't like it switch ISP.

Yes I know some small parts of Europe don't have many options but if any of the ISPs started doing anything like this it would still be too big a hit in areas where there is choice for them to risk it.

HTC's new One A9 will gulp Android updates days after Nexus mobes

Re: Call the lawyers!

Yes, HTC copied Apple with assistance from Dr. Who. As usual Apple's reality distortion field seems to have had an effect on design.

Accidental homicide: how VoLTE kills old style call accounting

Re: But even when you are no longer making "calls"...

Sorry I don't get your point, in the UK at least, you don't pay line rental on mobile networks whether your using data or voice or SMS.

I know you do however on fixed lines and other physical services like electricity, gas, water but that's because there is a fixed physical connection aka line that you are renting.

Doctor Who's The Girl Who Died ships in nasty Vikings floating atop a time-bending tidal wave

Re: Viking electric eels ?

Artistic license, they probably felt eels worked better than electric rays which would have been both local and probably more powerful.

4K catches fire with OTT streamers, while broadcasters burn

Re: Waste of time and money, you can't break the rules of biology.

"uoted in diagonal size appears to be screen sizes for marketing purposes). Using Pythagoras' theorem, a square pixel of 0.56mm would actually have a diagonal size of slightly under 0.8mm, but lets not split hairs here."

WRONG AGAIN! Yes a square pixel of 0.56mm would be < 0.8 but your original calculation of 0.56mm was wrong (FHD = 1920x1080). I did compound the error by typing 0.9mm instead of 0.8mm but that's finger trouble for you. The diagonal dimension is what your eye will be able to detect unless of course you have CCDs for eyes that are perfectly aligned with the display.

I can think of quite a few things that have distinct edges on TV programs that I watch, like people, houses, plants, in fact I'm really struggling to figure out what it is that you watch that doesn't contain any high-contrast edges.

Anti-aliasing is a work-around for poor resolution, ask any gamer who has a QHD or better screen whether they actually keep anti-aliasing turned on.

Re: Waste of time and money, you can't break the rules of biology.

@Loyal Commenter: "Assume you have a 50" TV, that is the diagonal size, which translates to a screen width of around 1100 mm in a standard 16:9 layout. In standard 1080p HD (1960 x 1080 px), that makes each pixel 0.56mm."

WRONG! Each pixel is about 0.9mm wide (diagonally), so definitely around about your supposed perception resolution and the last thing I want to see is individual pixels, I want to perceive smooth sharp lines and curved edges not a jaggy mess or edges anti-aliased into a blur.

Chocolate Factory plops Marshmallow on Android slabs

Re: New Type of Crime Announced by Yugguy!

The point is that you actually did have the choice of which phone to buy, if you made that choice without knowing anything about the stock software then that's your fault, no one forced you to buy it. Plus, you could always put some other software on it instead.