Posts by Snapper

95% of NFTs now totally worthless, say researchers

Re: Tell your friends

Forget Dabsy, get Ms Bee back!

HP reveals bonkers $5k foldable tablet/laptop/desktop

Most people accuse Carly of deeply damaging HP by getting rid of anyone of experience in the management who could possibly become a rival for the leadership.

And she wanted to be President!

Women!

Can't live with them.

Can't live with them.

Apple's iPhone 12 woes spread as Belgium, Germany, Netherlands weigh in

Re: I can see it now -

Doesn't stop a LOT of small high-street repair shops trying.

Microsoft to kill off third-party printer drivers in Windows

Re: Oh gawd no,

Late 80's here. I went into a quasi UK government department where people were using Macs, and found that every person had their own Apple LaserWriter IINTX (about £5,000 then) sat by their desks. As a Mac consultant I gently wondered aloud why this setup had come about as Apple printers were net-workable with Apple's LocalTalk cabling or Ethernet adapters,

The answer was that they had recently moved over from a printing hell caused by MS-DOS computers and the nightmare of getting networked printers to work, and it was thus department policy to provide printers to all staff.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the sales meeting of the Apple Dealer who got THAT gig! "THIRTY-FIVE LaserWriter II's!!!, Here's my youngest daughter, bring her back in moderate condition tomorrow!!"

Boffins reckon Mars colony could survive with fewer than two dozen people

Re: Why do people call a small outpost a colony ?

And that pre-supposes that everyone is getting along.

What if they split into factions like the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn did?

Putting some in an airlock without a spacesuit like Heinlein wrote in 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' would be pretty feasible.

Western Digital sued over claims of data-trashing SanDisk, My Passport SSDs

Old news

When you look at WD's history, with macOS 10.9 Mavericks wiping WD drives because WD had not modified their drivers for year despite strong warnings from Apple, then two or possibly three attempts to flog unsuitable 'NAS' drives that could lose massive amounts of data in the last 5-6 years, I think my trust in them is almost totally gone.

Voyager 2 found! Deep Space Network hears it chattering in space

Re: All alone in space

My God, is that true?

Musk's X tries to win advertisers back with discounts

Referral

The Organisation Previously Known As Twitter

T.O.P.K.A.T.

Always on the Horizon, UK must wait for megabucks EU science deal

Re: Dolchstosslegende

And the pixie's and those damn turncoat unicorns!

This AI is better than you at figuring out where a street pic was taken just by looking at it

Or a river!

Nobody does DR tests to survive lightning striking twice

Re: At least you fixed the problem.

I see you and raise you Croydon!

Microsofties still digesting pay freeze upset by Nadella's 'landmark year' memo

Re: So, landmark year and, for thanks, pay freeze

Also check the number of dead in the 20th century in the USSR, China, Cambodia and at the bottom of the Berlin wall. Makes Hitler look like a toddler.

Re: but when you're making more than $50 billion a year

Or even allow you to upgrade your files to the latest version of Outlook!

Microsoft's Activision fight with FTC turned up a Blizzard of docs: Here's your summary

History

Given Microsoft's proven business tactics and history, is anyone convinced that games ported to 'rival' platforms to keep the authorities quiet will give the same performance and user experience?

Microsoft rethinks death sentence for Windows Mail and Calendar apps

"Relaunch of Outlook Express?"

You mean yet another Microsoft app that will be incompatible with other Microsoft apps.

After giving us .zip, Google Domains to shut down, will be flogged off to Squarespace

Re: Personal recommendations for non-US email hosts that charge for their services

I've used IONOS for a few UK clients. They can import POP and 365 accounts to work with IMAP quite easily.

Healthcare org with over 100 clinics uses OpenAI's GPT-4 to write medical records

I got me three of them in quick succession.

First the absolute travesty of a GP who couldn't tell the difference between the symptoms of Asthma (which I knew more about than her) and a genuine heart attack! Cue wasting months getting tested for Asthma despite my protestations.

Then the 'highly qualified' surgeon who went in to give me one stent and caused so much damage I needed three. No change in symptoms afterwards re lack of breath, pains in chest, tiredness etc.

THEN the 'highly qualified' surgeon and 'a colleague' give me four more stents in a different part of my heart because they'd missed the problems there.

Symptoms still here, no change.

Smartphone recovery that's always around the corner is around the corner

Golly, have you compared that to an iPhone and iOS?

;-)

This legit Android app turned into mic-snooping malware – and Google missed it

Wut?

Sorry, who are you actually having a go at here?

Dump these insecure phone adapters because we're not fixing them, says Cisco

Re: Bit hard on the bright young things?

Have a gander at some of these rip-offs. https://is.gd/3BU8ys Hoot!

Sample link - $3,499.99 for a 1 meter length of USB 2.0 cable https://www.theabsolutesound.com/?p=20580

Thieves smash hole in wall to nab $500K in Apple iKit

Re: Roof job

Early 90's a client had 40 macs stolen from their 5th floor office by thieves using the 3rd floor flat roof of a disused college in north London, connected (get this) by four ladders roped together to cross the 10m gap between the buildings.

I have to admit, I still admire the organisation and sheer brass balls of the thieves.

I had to replace all 40 computes, which made for a very busy but very profitable week.

Back in the late 80's I got a call from a client who'd just had 10 Macintosh IIci's delivered and installed by me and my assistant a few days before.

TOM: 'Can you tell me why two of your guys picked up all the new computers just as the studio was starting up this morning?'

ME: 'Tom, you know me and David (assistant), and we don't have any other staff, so it wasn't us!'

TOM: 'They were wearing white coats and seemed to know what they were doing!'

ME: 'I bet they did!'

UK's Emergency Services Network unlikely to start operating until 2029

Re: Scandalous!

Or the Civil Service unofficial mantra of 'Shit should rise to the top'.

Psst! Infosec bigwigs: Wanna be head of security at HM Treasury for £50k?

Re: Can't pay more

Errrmmmm That's common sense, but this is the UK Government we are talking about.

Moon's glass beads contain enough water to support a mission

Re: Moooon river

Or a space station!

UK watchdog still not ruled on Openreach wholesale fiber discounts

Re: "with rival network operators complaining that Openreach is unfairly undercutting them"

I've been dealing with BT at clients sites for 35 years. Bunch of badly trained apes for the most part. The introduction of ISDN and the (in)famous inch-thick invoices every month because you got charged for a full minute when the second 64kbps line kicked in when required, which might happen happen several times a minute or even several times a second.

This went on for years and BT claimed it was the customers equipment that was faulty.

Google stops selling its biz-grade augmented reality specs

Re: I wonder...?

Biased much?

Top spec MacBook Pro Apple M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 38‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine, 96GB unified memory + 8TB SSD storage is £5,624.17 + VAT/USD $6,848.83 (no tax added).

Unless you have other, much more accurate pricing information of course, which I'd be happy to examine.

Here's a link to a very recent comparison between a just released Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra with RTX 4050 GPU vs the lowest spec 16" MacBook Pro (with the smallest drive so 1/2 the speed of the next size up). https://youtu.be/lgyx1adRGp8

The MacBook handily wipes the clock of the Samsung in most of the tests. Then they unplugged the PC from the mains and the laughing really started here in Snapper Towers.

Google: Turn off Wi-Fi calling, VoLTE to protect your Android from Samsung hijack bugs

Re: Frikkin' Network Operators

I run a refurb iPhone 8 (2017) and my wife has the same. Before that i had an iPhone 6s for four years until I dropped it off a roof.

My daughter changes her Samsung phone every couple of years because there is always something going wrong with it after that time.

Some phones are better made and last longer than new shiny toys like Samsung.

Catholic clergy surveillance org 'outs gay priests'

Wouldn't it be more useful to check when priests or shamans of any particular sky-fairy cult spend a lot of time alone near children's dormitory's.

I think that would be far, far closer to Christ's teachings.

Microsoft makes Outlook Mac native email app a freebie

Re: Can't wait...

Couple of my older Mac clients rang up in panic after having clicked that New/Old button by mistake. One had to resort to his inhaler!

Don't worry, that system's not actually active – oh, wait …

Re: pizza is the perfect food

The word you are looking for is 'funicular'.

Not just you in the night: Tiny bugs use superpropulsion to eject huge volumes of pee

Re: Cuury and Guiness

to save time you could superglue them!

After all they ain't coming back.

Or are they.....

You missed the obvious 'Micturition' in your marvellous missive!

US Air Force reveals B-21 Raider stealth bomber that'll fly the unfriendly skies

Re: Deter aggression

Unfortunately that was several generations ago.

Microsoft promises smaller Windows 11 updates with UUP – but there's a catch

Re: What I want

MS could take more than a few lessons from Apple in how to upgrade an OS! Of course there are issues, but usually with MS apps.

Microsoft says will make life easier for Windows admins

'Microsoft says will make life easier for Windows admins'

Run for the hills!!

Arm still strong despite SoftBank loss as shipments pass a quarter of a trillion

Re: Still waiting for desktop CPUs

(and no, I'm not buying a Mac Mini)

Why not? You've just described a highly customised ARM processor that is optimised for the software running on it. Games will come as the games companies realise, if they don't already, the advantages of optimised coding for iOS, iPadOS and MacOS. Technical and supply issues have held up the 3nm versions of the Apple Silicon SoC but it's still streets ahead of Intel in temperature and power efficiency,

Chipmakers threaten to defect to US, EU if UK doesn't get its semiconductor plans sorted

Re: >Where's the Brexit bonus?

All 17.4 million versions.

No, you cannot safely run a network operations center from a corridor

Had a client not install adequate ventilation in the small server room, so the only solution they would go for (money-wise) was to take the sides and front off the cabinet and direct a large floor-mounted fan at it. They also insisted that the 'server' room could be used for storage of anything they desired, so one of the team leaders bought his bike in.

There was a server outage of course. The silly billy came in soaking wet one day and hung his dripping lycra up to dry on the convenient cabinet.

Some people should not be allowed computers etc.

Microsoft injects AI into Teams so no one will ever forget what the meeting decided

Re: translation

Eleven

Apple's M2 MacBook Pros, Mac Mini boast more cores, higher clocks and bigger GPUs

Re: 8GB extra for £200

Simply use the Apple Store instead. 16/256 Mac Mini is £707.00 + VAT

Gonna run System Restore in Windows 11? Microsoft says some of its apps won't

Re: Well, that's just great

But...but...it was Microsoft saying that!

And you believed them?!

Microsoft and community release scripts to help mitigate Defender mess

Re: Aaaaaand so we stumble on to the next problem. And the next. And, well, the next..

And if those staff were doing a time-sensitive job or had a deadline like a product launch?

No cost right?

Microsoft Defender ASR rules strip icons, app shortcuts from Taskbar, Start Menu

Re: Precautions, for your convenience

'The best way to reduce attack surface is to "fix" the Windows computer so that it can't even be turned on'

TFIFY

Re: My Linux VM

Oh noes, the Mac guys are just opening the bags of pop-corn!

Go on, is this the year of Linux on the doorstep then?

Fuck me, when are you guys going to grow a pair and recognise Windows as a self-defeating construct!

Or do you just keep making money at 'supporting' it and sneering at everything else?

Microsoft HoloLens proves to be a headache for US soldiers

Re: Context from KGuttag.com

'In this case the user wants to aim their rifle without raising their head into a position where it could be shot by their adversary. A little unsporting perhaps, but perfectly understandable.'

Then the rifle will have to be completely redesigned as well. To shoot even mildly accurately is a skill, usually taught over a period of training and then requiring constant practice.

Good shooting occurs when the body is supporting the rifle as an extension of the arms and body, that's why it's generally taught that the prone body, with the rifle supported by both arms which have elbows resting on the ground and with the stock pressed firmly into the shoulder so that recoil is transmitted and absorbed through the shoulders, torso and legs in a straight line, is the best way of hitting what you are carefully aiming at.

Any other system will have to take this requirement into account, and as the Mk 1 human body, both M and F variants, doesn't have 50cm high shoulders I foresee a slight issue.

Mixing an invisible laser and a fire alarm made for a disastrous demo

Whot abaht a whale shark!

Elon Musk starts poll with one question: Should I step down as head of Twitter?

Re: Confused.com

But if there is a new Great Leader he might pardon you.

And if you were dead you might be very, very sorry about that.....

Patch Tuesday update is causing some Windows 10 systems to blue screen

Re: It's nearly 2023 and still ...

Yeah, but then the IT support people and the IT directors jobs would be less well paid and influential, so THEY keep on buying the damn thing.