Posts by werdsmith

HMS Queen Elizabeth has sprung a leak and everyone's all a-tizzy

The beeb has gone all sh*t-stirry about it quoting their own "defence correspondent" saying this is "highly embarassing for the Royal Navy".

I see it as testing the ship to find any faults and fixing them before it goes operational.

Peak smartphone? iPhone X flunks 'supercycle' hopes

Re: Expensive XXX

Yep, ordinary iPhone 7 for £277 4 months old through O2 refresh. The 8 isn't different enough and the X seems to be a first attempt at that class of phone and seems half-arsed, Apple will probably make the phone properly by version 3.

Russia could chop vital undersea web cables, warns Brit military chief

Telescopes not needed to see many satellites.

BBC website comments sections are a very powerful looney-magnet.

'DJI Mavic' drone seen menacing London City airliner after takeoff

Re: Why not use social media?

GPS + Massive slice of luck. With GPS altitude accuracy of +/- 23 metres, the first near miss will knock the quadcopter out of the sky.

My instructions when there was a risk of bird collisions was to climb, because a bird will dive to pick up speed if it is trying to evade something. I have seen a light aircraft that had a herring gull go through its prop and it was a bit messy.

But that was for light aircraft, I imagine that airliners being less immediately responsive would only be able to try to avoid large flocks that they see in good time.

Re: Why not use social media?

"Depends how much planning they actually did. Airliners fly a very predictable path for the last few thousand feet down to the runway, at Heathrow all you'd need to do is position your drone on that path and wait. With a plane every 60 seconds or so the odds start to move in their favour."

And the first time they get close their drone will be killed by the wake turbulence. The disturbance in the air caused by wings at 180 knots holding up a 70+ tonne airline would give a drone zero chance.

If you could judge by eye from the ground where the centreline glidepath and localiser are then you would have some kind of super-hero power. And anyway, this incident was when the flight was on climb out.

Next to no chance.

Re: Why not use social media?

A nutjob with a grudge would need a massive slice of luck to get a bullseye on airliner, especially at 3000 feet AMSL. It is far more likely that they would lose their toy or get arrested than they manage to touch an airliner in just the right spot to be dangerous.

No it can't be an exact identification. The Mavic has an altitude limiter, though this can be worked around by people who, for instance, like to take them up mountains to film themselves skiing, there are a number of chinese copies that can be had for a fraction of the price and have no alitude limiter. They look very much like Mavics and I wouldn't be surprised if one got out of control.

Hello, Dixons Carphone? Yep, we're ringing from a 2015 handset. Profits down 60%, eh?

Re: Recent upgrade

Yep, I just buy used phones or get into a deal like nearly new O2 refresh.

Leftover Synaptics debugger puts a keylogger on HP laptops

Re: Can anyone explain

The BBC explanation:

He said the keylogger was disabled by default, but an attacker with access to the computer could have enabled it to record what a user was typing.

According to HP, it was originally built into the Synaptics software to help debug errors.

NiceHash diced up by hackers, thousands of Bitcoin pilfered

Re: Mugs game

"This is just one of the many reasons why I will never go anywhere near craptocurrency."

I mined BTC for 12 months a few years back. Then after the price went up a bit I took most of it out and took the family on a nice holiday to USA with the money. Since then the little bit that I left in there has become worth more than I took out to pay for the holiday.

Yeah, real mug, me.

Facebook Messenger ... for who now? Zuck points his digital crack at ever younger kids

Re: "Year 6 children, or 10-year-olds, routinely use WhatsApp groups

FFS.

OK VRH, your advice will be rolled out to all kids immediately and we will have our utopia.

All kids will be joining your kids in the top 0.1% for physical fitness and all kids will be bigger and stronger than all other kids.

I really have no idea why we haven't been doing it this way all along.

Nokia 8: As pure as the driven Android - it's a classy return

Re: It's fantastic to see such a great start

And it doesn't matter how nice the phone hardware is, it's still Android.

Deal breaker.

Apple sprays down bug-ridden iOS 11 with more fixes

Not anymore.......

I still use an Apple device despite its flaws and irritations. Because I've experienced the alternative.

Had it not been for these articles on The Register I would never have known about any of the problems; nor would I have suffered any ill effect.

WW2 Enigma machine to be seized from shamed pharma bro Shkreli

Re: Enigma

Bletchley Park wasn't just about knowing how to break an enigma message, it was a huge industrial operation that collated thousands of messages from dozens of outstations and had to do it very quickly.

Some of this work was based on the leg up they got from the Polish cryptanalysts, but thereafter Enigma had to be cracked and re-cracked and for long periods in the middle of WW2, Bletchley was completely blind to some Enigma versions, particularly naval Enigma which put the battle of the Atlantic in the balance. Many more breakthroughs had to be made. To state that breaking enigma was about knowing how to decrypt an early version of it is oversimplifying matters. The Polish input was the seed for the subsequent work and is well acknowledged, and anyone that gets a tour of BP will hear all about it and get shown the very nice monument to them.

Scotland, now is your time… to launch Brexit Britain into SPAAAACE!

Re: Prestwick??

Machrihanish (Campbeltown) is not mentioned, but it already has a bigger USAF built runway, and is more remote. And being an airport, remoteness is not an access problem.

However, depending on the next referendum, it may end up as a Baikonur style lease.

Other options, Woomera is being developed again, and also Ascension Island has an appropriate name and location.

Russian rocket snafu may have just violently dismantled 19 satellites

They will have more than the tooling. They will already have the flight spares.

In such a risky business as spaceflight a launch failure is already well planned for.

Re: Soyuz 2-b

Here's an English Major for you, though he is not normally enraged:

English Major

Apple embraces El Reg! iOS 11 is now biting the hand that types IT

Re: What do you expect?

Sorry Werdsmith, but i can speak from personal experience, about some of my colleagues and their disdainful attitude to anything not coming from the fruity factory.

There really was no need to start your comment with an apology for the rest of it, but accepted anyway.

And from personal experience I have met people with a disdainful attitude to everything coming from the fruity factory. Is it somehow OK for them to be like this because it aligns with your personal views?

I think they are as bad as each other, but the exception not the rule.

Re: What do you expect?

Werdsmith, you defenitely need to get out more.

Or maybe it's my choice of friends.

Talking about reality distortion, depending on where your confirmation bias sits you won't have to look far to find supercilious and sanctimonious comments from both sides. You have the internet at your disposal and you can find stuff to backup whatever you want.

I realise that there are sensitive souls out there walking around with their "please offend me" t-shirts on. But really it's no big deal. If you want to be disdainful about Apple users because it suits your emotional investment in another product, for every one of you there is one the same looking back down his nose in the opposite direction. There's no goodies and baddies here, no moral high ground, just a bunch of polarised twats.

Re: What do you expect?

It is actually very simple, there is a big subset of Apple owners who like to lord it over those who don't have and don't want any Apple kit.

I think that's a perception that generally exists only the mind of the person that use the non-apple kit. I've really never seen any apple owner do anything other that use their stuff for what the bought it for. Really the iPhone aura faded around 2012, people get into the iPhone world for peanuts with used phones, nobody thinks it's a big deal.

Munich council finds €49.3m for Windows 10 embrace

Re: €49.3m for Windows 10

That's not the problem by itself. The problem is that it differs from windows 7 more than most Linux desktops.

That's not a problem either because for the vast majority of users, the OS will just be a means of launching an application and all the productivity is in the application, not the OS.

Re: €49.3m for Windows 10

Are designed to bring money for Microsoft: Don't ever try to claim anything else.

Are you trying to win a stating the obvious competition? That statement applies to virtually every commercial product. However, the ones in question are designed to give value in exchange and they actually do. It might hurt some people to hear that, but they really do.

Re: €49.3m for Windows 10

Then add SCCM, SCOM, AD, Endpoint Manager, Windows Server, etc. It ends up begin incredibly expensive.

So what are you saying exactly? Are SCCM, SCOM, AD, Endpoint Manager, Windows Server etc cheaper when purchased retail?

Most of those things, plus Group Policy on AD are of benefit to an enterprise IT department and are designed save a lot of legwork and sysadmin time and therefore salary cost.

'Break up Google and Facebook if you ever want innovation again'

No need to break up faecebook, just require them to use a standard with an open API. Like browsers, email and everything else internet before these people got involved who see it as their life's mission to make their company into the de-facto web starting silo services.

So, a person who chooses to use Diaspora could add in a contact that they know is a Faecebook user, and vice versa and continue to see their updates.

Phone fatigue takes hold: SIM-onlys now top UK market

Very rarely, I plug a little powerbank into it.

Never been inclined to do any of that SD card stuff, like most of the phone buying market. Most phone buyers use their phones a lot but not for things you need to store many GBs of locally.

There is no incentive for for phone makers to compromise their strategy just to please a few geeks.

Yes, battery life is important, also being able to survive a drop on to concrete from head height.

I'd also like good screen readability in sunlight, and good connectivity in fringe coverage areas.

I'd rate all those ahead of screen size, slimness etc. I've not missed replaceable battery or SD card slots at all.

The biggest problem is choice in the market. If you wan't to avoid Apple then your only practical option is Android. Not a happy situation.

Remember the 'budget' iPhone SE? Apple plans an update – reports

Re: £300 refurbished? You've been ripped off.

Giffgaff have 128GB SE for £299 unlocked Black Friday deal.

New not refurb.

Arm Inside: Is Apple ready for the next big switch?

"longer battery life and lower power consumption."

Ooh you get both! Imagine that!

Prosecute driverless car devs for software snafus, say Brit cyclists

Re: RE: GOT AWAY WITH IT

This guy was the typical entitled cyclist that gets us all a bad name. Didn't think he was riding dangerously and complained that HIS life was ruined. c**t.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/07/15/cyclist-who-hit-little-girl-on-the-pavement-denies-riding-his-bike-dangerously-5297096/

Re: Cycle lanes/paths

I really enjoy cycling down the cycle path in my jeans and coat and overtaking the lycra twats on the main road.

Re: ICE's blocking EV Charging points

This is why I have a tankbag full of roofing nails on my electric bike. Same for the people that park across 2 or 3 spaces.

Seriously? You admit that? I would suggest that being a twat is not the best way to deal with other twats.

If I see a sharp object that could puncture a tyre I put it in a bin.

Re: Fair enough, but...

But one cyclist accidentally knocks over a pedestrian who was on her phone and not paying attention to traffic when crossing the road and you're all up in arms, bloody hypocrites.

If a driver was driving a car with no working brakes and driving an a "wanton and furious" manner then everybody would be up in arms too. Think it through.

Re: Fair enough, but...

> "Perhaps it's also time they were required to carry insurance?"

>>Be good if all motorists did that:

--------------------

All motorist are required to have insurance.

80-year-old cyclist killed in prang with Tesla Model S

Both travelling south on the A177 near High Shincliffe.

A very standard ordinary road if my memory serves me right, I used it often to get from Durham Uni to the A1M.

I once passed a cyclist, gave him a full lane width of space, he still turned right without looking or signalling and hit the back of my car.

In fact most car drivers drive in such a way as to yield their so called "right of way" (doesn't exist) in the interests of everybody. But I've noticed a prevalence among cyclists to assert their perceived "right of way" even if that means putting themselves in danger.

On days when I cycle to work (days when I'm not going to be either soaked in sweat or rain) I tend to try to help all the traffic along and I won't let a queue build up behind me. Observe the drivers, at least 19/20 will be looking after you. I observe the other cyclists, they tend not to want to give anything away, some of them even get aggressive toward each other and pedestrians.

It's should always be a co-operative effort, regardless of who has the largest and hardest mass.

Some motorcycle training would be a very good thing for cyclists and drivers.

Red Hat opens its ARMs to Enterprise Linux... er, wait, perhaps it's the other way round

Re: Meh.

Debian based linux has had Systemd on ARM since Jessie.

Munich council: To hell with Linux, we're going full Windows in 2020

Look it's true, but you shouldn't say it on The Register forums. Just not done.

Re: Nothing to see here...

Also known as a "fine" .

Re: Whot ?

I write and write and write every day. I don't use Office to do the work, I use either the Mac, or the google docs word processor.

But when my work is submitted I have to import it into Word and check the formatting is straight before it goes off, because it can be guaranteed that where-ever it's going they are going to be using Word.

ARM emulator in a VM? Yup, done. Ready to roll, no config required

Re: Just how big are they?

"just became a little easier"

I didn't notice on first read-through because I think my brain auto-inserted the missing word to make the sentence work.

Android at 10: How Google won the smartphone wars

Re: Horsecrap

Apple need OS flash to fix a keyboard bug,

Yes, but there were many lies being told around the web about the fix for the keyboard "i" problem being a 1GB full OS download. In fact the 11.1.1 update is already out and is only 44.6MB including a separate SIRI fix.

Yes, it does include a rstart, no big deal in itself and when I used an Android a reboot was usually a pretty good idea more often than not anyway.

Re: Who's Supposed To Be The 'Winner' Here?

The thought of an Android monopoly is, for many reasons, an unbearable one.

Re: Sometimes marketing matters...

ChromeOS doesn't need to be "continually connected to work".

But alas, WebOS is now an LG TV OS, but could have provided a plausible alternative to iOS.

I really wish there was one.

Qualcomm is shipping next chip it'll perhaps get sued for: ARM server processor Centriq 2400

Re: RiscOS

Yes, RISCOS sometimes feels like a breath of fresh air when I use it. I just wish the real good productivity stuff wasn't so expensive.

Stop worrying and let the machines take our jobs – report

Re: A short sighted story to medicate the masses

Most of my job is automated already, everything from rules on my email inbox, to plugging in key words to merge into pre-written documents. I automated it myself because I didn't want to be doing all this boring stuff. So people think I'm productive, I'm not at all but the job comes with a PC so I used it to do what it's supposed to. It even looks like I'm working when I'm at home asleep in bed.

Seldom used 'i' mangled by baffling autocorrect bug in Apple's iOS 11

Re: ?

I'm 11.1 and it doesn't do anything odd with the I. Is this a hoax?

Londoners: Ready to swap your GP for an NHS vid doc app?

Re: Choice

But many problems need a hands on approach by a doc to get to the bottom of the problem.

Or there could be a special rubber glove attachment for phones?