Posts by Snapper

Geneticists throw hands in the air, change gene naming rules to finally stop Microsoft Excel eating their data

Re: Time to be pedantic

Exceedingly well put Sir, I doff.

Google to pull plug on Play Music, its streaming service that couldn't beat Spotify, in favour of YouTube Music

Google dropping a platform, whatever next!

An irritating itch down the back of your neck? Searing midsummer heat? Of course, it can only be SysAdmin Day

Re: Seeking sysadmins from other colonies to mate with

Egad!

Re: Colonies of sysadmins have a single queen

Ms Beehave?

Once considered lost, ESA and NASA's SOHO came back from the brink of death to work even better than it did before

Re: Back then...

"like Excel for doing non critical stuff"

I don't like it doing non-critical stuff!

'I'm telling you, I haven't got an iPad!' – Sent from my iPad

Re: Lost count

Had a client where the Bright Young Things used the MacBook Airs as clutch purses. Key's, passcards with neckchains, phones and, in one case, a lipstick. Boss couldn't see the problem. Went out of business a year later.

Re: On helpdesk calls

Been there, done that, eaten the T-Shirt!

Re: On helpdesk calls

Fsckin bril!

I'm gonna use that!

BT: 'Because of the existing underlying supply of the 4G equipment, most of our 5G (NSA) so far is with Huawei'

We abandoned Poland? We (and France) declared war FFS! We had no way of getting the massive numbers of troops, artillery, tanks and aircraft to Poland in time to make a difference, and even if we had there was no infrastructure left. The blitzkrieg took just over 4 weeks from start to finish, aided by the Soviet Union, allies to and trainers of the German military. So we'd have been fighting the Nazi's and the Bolsheviks.

Maybe you need to read a few good history books that deal with those horrible things called 'recorded facts' before you show your ignorance.

Agreed! The difference in quality of carriages, time-keeping and all the other things that used to make travelling on British Rail hell-on-earth are excellent.

I know some services are poor, and hopefully they will be fixed, but I'd never want to go back to the British Rail that thought the government was just a vast pool of money to pay their workers, and the incredibly poor attitude of the staff towards the travelling public.

It's been five years since Windows 10 hit: So... how's that working out for you all?

O360 is good, as it refers to the number of days per year it nearly doesn't fuck up your life. The other 5 are screwed.

Microsoft wants to show enterprises that Edge means business, rather than the thing you use to download Chrome

You'd certainly find macOS better behaved.

UKIP blackmail, data breach sueball allegations were groundless, rules High Court

Re: Standard are slipping...

It does seem poor of Vulture Central to miss such an obvious target.

As it seems the guy can't right, spel or punctyuate properly it's fairly obvious which part of the political spectrum he hails from.

He probably dribbles.

When Apollo met Soyuz: 45 years ago, Americans and Russians played together nicely... IN SPAAAAACE

Re: LOL, and what if it's all a hoax?

Oh dear oh dear!

Photography baby basics Keythong, if that's your real name?

Photographic film has to be exposed correctly to get a good photograph, otherwise the negative shows under (lack of detail in shadows) exposure, or over (highlights burnt out out with no detail) exposure.

If you try and take a photograph of the stars at night-time on earth, what happens? You have to use a long exposure, almost certainly not hand-held, for the minute amount of light from those distant stars to register on the film's light sensitive emulsion.

So, imagine taking a photo in the blinding light of an atmosphere-less moon. Go on, think about it.

Would they make a long, hand-held exposure to record the stars, just in case some doofus in the future needed proof they were actually on the moon? Or would they use their training skills to get well-exposed shots on fairly primitive colour film without the benefit of exposure meters, either hand-held or in the cameras, which were not automatic. Their preferred subjects would probably be the other astronaut, the equipment and the magnificent desolation don't you think?

As a photographer I have my own suspicions about a couple* of the photos that came back, and I suspect they were taken on Earth in case they had to bug-out or some unexpected and unplanned for fate had befallen the cameras or rolls of film, but stars come nowhere near to your laughable theory.

*The shot of Aldrin exiting the hatch to join Armstrong (taken by Armstrong) in particular. The shadows and specular reflections (highlights showing the rough direction the light is coming from) are all over the place.

Oh sure, we'll just make a tiny little change in every source file without letting anyone know. What could go wrong?

Re: pre-printed with serial numbers) from a locked store

The REAL killer with ISDN was the two channels being set to auto switch instead of 'Use 1 or two channels as default', in other words switch from one 64k channel to using two due to the amount of data being used. Used to switch on and off many times a second and the end-user would get a thick ream of invoices because each connection was a separate charge for the minimum period IIRC 60 seconds. BT made a fortune and never coughed up what was causing the issue.

And don't get me started on the near hopeless quality of the BT engineers sent out to install ISDN sockets! Complete Cockwombles the lot of them!

Cambridge student rebuilds Polish Enigma-code-breaking box that paved the way for Turing ... and Victory!

Re: Just love to see something that is not dusty, old and rubbish looking

And that heavy piece of metal would have been machined to very high tolerances, which wasn't necessary for that part. Having 20 or so design bureau working on things like proximity fuses (REAL war-winning stuff) separately is another example of wasting your precious resources.

Check out the history of the Sten sub-machine gun to see how lowering tolerances to just-good-enough enabled the British army to re-equip and have enough over to send to partizans in......Europe!

UK space firms forced to adjust their models of how the universe works as they lose out on Copernicus contracts

Re: This project is, though

And......?

Hey, Boeing. Don't celebrate your first post-grounding 737 Max test flight too hard. You just lost another big contract

Re: Except plenty more.

Given that Boeing was prepared to put in a major design change and then try and get around certification (essentially fraud) by putting in poorly designed software to claim that no pilot re-training was required which cost 300 innocent people their lives in two crashes, I'd say the least that should happen is the directors responsible all get lengthy jail sentences. Losing an order and having to pay compensation is just good luck for the airlines involved. My heart is not bleeding for Boeing.

UK police's face recognition tech breaks human rights laws. Outlaw it, civil rights group urges Court of Appeal

"It's not just about scanning all the faces in a location, that is bad enough, but I presume that the policate retail details of ALL the people scanned, irrespective of if there was a march!"

There, fixed it for you.

PC printer problems and enraged execs: When the answer to 'Hand over that floppy disk' is 'No'

Re: No drivers.

I'm still running 2 x LaserJet 4100dn printers from new. Every year or two I put in a new toner cartridge and they just keep going...! If I update the OS the drivers are built into it (thanks Apple).

Hey is trying a new take on email – but maker complains of 'outrageous' demands after Apple rejects iOS app

Re: Tops vs Bottoms redux

I think you'd need an automated cattle-prod for that!

Frenchman scores €50k compensation for suffering 'bore-out' at work after bosses gave him 'menial' tasks

Re: Sooo....

The only way to get rid of useless people was to promote them, I saw it happen several times. The head of my department could barely tie his own shoelaces and was dangerously and expensively incompetent.

Russia drags NASA: Enjoy your expensive SpaceX capsule, our Soyuz is the cheap Kalashnikov of rockets

Kalashnikov = 'Cheap'?

The reason second-hand Kalashnikov's are cheap now is that they were made to a very high standard and in millions under the Soviets. Money that didn't go to hospitals and schools went to producing armaments.

Kalashnikov's and the Soyuz have something in common, they were designed long ago by a system that threw money at them.

Western Digital shingled out in lawsuit for sneaking RAID-unfriendly tech into drives for RAID arrays

Re: Silly way to drive customers away

If one fails and you have to rebuild your RAID, that's the danger time, as these SMR drives are NOT suitable for large data transfer, which is exactly what happens during a RAID rebuild. That's not 'they may be a bit slow' unsuitable, it's 'the drive might seize up and you lose all your data' unsuitable.

Made-up murder claims, threats to kill Twitter, rants about NSA spying – anything but mention 100,000 US virus deaths, right, Mr President?

Best title I've come across is 'Il Douché'

Photostopped: Adobe Cloud evaporates in mass outage. Hope none of you are on a deadline, eh?

How many alternatives do you need! Why not go for the one that is really making headway?

Seriously, check out the excellent and compatible alternatives (Photo and Designer) from Affinity https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ and https://is.gd/PxCKKR and https://is.gd/So4rEQ

Modern, well-coded alternatives for macOS, Windows and iPad that use your computer's power to the full. No subscription, just a one-off low price. They do a 90-day free trial and at the moment a 50% discount to support the design community.

Since last year, along with their InDesign compatible Publisher app, you've been able to take advantage of

I was under the impression that Photoshop and Illustrator had not been considered 'Professional' for several years.

Apple's latest macOS Catalina update mysteriously borks SSH for some unlucky fans. What could be the cause?

Re: Have you checked 14 boxes under system preferences...

Depends on the exact model of computer you buy. If its been around during the lifetime of your favoured macOS version then you'll probably be OK. Any updates to that model after the macOS is updated usually means you are stuck with the new OS.

That awful moment when what you thought was a number 1 turned out to be a number 2

Re: Trying to teach...

Graduate (UK) Manchester - Marketing

Spreadsheet

Enters column of figures, about 80.

Gets calculator out to add up column of figures.

WTF!

How?

Re: You solved the problem, goodbye

THIS drives me mad.

I can understand if someone has a deadline to hit and simply, really doesn't have time, but the attitude from users that 'alright, you've fixed it, now why are you still here' is becoming more, not less prevalent.

The Reg produces exhibit A1: A UK court IT system running Windows XP

Re: "We are in the process of upgrading our courts' computer systems"

What do you think the chances are!

All the IT ladies (all the IT ladies), all the IT ladies (all the IT ladies), now put your hands up! Oh, still not many here

I suspect that a lot of it is peer pressure from other girls and possibly careers advice. Highly doubt there are any barriers being artificially thrown up to stop them.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now: Brexit tea towel says it'll just be the gigabit broadband

Re: Optional?

But Boris isn't a hon.....oh!

Steve Jobs, executives shot down top Apple engineers' plea to design their own server CPU – latest twist in legal battle over chip upstart Nuvia

Re: Apple innovation is a myth

Check your history. Apple did NOT steal the GUI idea. Xerox, against the wishes of their PARC staff, took a payment of Apple stock to demonstrate networked computers, object orientated programming and the Xerox GUI, which Jobs immediately saw as the future for personal computing.

“I had three or four people (at Apple) who kept bugging that I get my rear over to Xerox PARC and see what they are doing. And, so I finally did. I went over there. And they were very kind. They showed me what they are working on.

And they showed me really three things. But I was so blinded by the first one that I didn’t even really see the other two. One of the things they showed me was object oriented programming – they showed me that but I didn’t even see that. The other one they showed me was a networked computer system… they had over a hundred Alto computers all networked using email etc., etc., I didn’t even see that. I was so blinded by the first thing they showed me, which was the graphical user interface. I thought it was the best thing I’d ever seen in my life.

Now remember it was very flawed. What we saw was incomplete, they’d done a bunch of things wrong. But we didn’t know that at the time but still thought they had the germ of the idea was there and they’d done it very well. And within – you know – ten minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this some day. It was obvious. You could argue about how many years it would take. You could argue about who the winners and losers might be. You could’t argue about the inevitability, it was so obvious

Steve Jobs about his visit to Xerox PARC – Clip from Robert Cringley’s TV documentation “Triumph of the Nerds“.

Bill G on Microsoft's biggest blunder... Was it Bing, Internet Explorer, Vista, the antitrust row?

Re: Microsoft did not used to need to see the future

I think phone manufacturers fought tooth and nail to stop Microsoft getting a toe-hold in the industry, as they knew they would pay an awful price.

Windows 7 will not go gentle into that good night: Ageing OS refuses to shut down

FIFY

'Sounds like Adobe doesn't do quite enough testing'

So you locked your backups away for years, huh? Allow me to introduce my colleagues, Brute, Force and Ignorance

Re: Macintosh

Ahhhh! External SyQuest SCSI drives! With those little buttons to choose the SCSI ID? Just the sort of thing to press with your finger when moving the only drive in the office (cheap bastards) between workstations.

If I had a quid for every time I fixed one by telling them to change it to anything but 0 or 3 or 7 (IIRC) then restart, I'd probably have the same amount of money I have now due to ------->

Alan Turing’s OBE medal, PhD cert, other missing items found in super-fan’s Colorado home by agents, says US govt

Re: Mrs Turing

'less than accurate' Imitation Game!

Complete bovine excrement from start to finish.

Welcome to the 2020s: Booby-trapped Office files, NSA tipping off Windows cert-spoofing bugs, RDP flaws...

Re: So...

But of course, the only secure Windows device is one that is powered down, all cables unplugged and put inside a Farady cage...

There, fixed it for ya!

Privacy activists beg Google to ban un-removable bloatware from Android

Re: It would be great if...

But then they won't be able to sell you a new phone when yours becomes too slow!

Two missing digits? How about two missing employees in today's story of Y2K

Re: real issues

Is Smoggy a director?

Tracking President Trump with cellphone location data, Greta-Thunberg-themed malware, SharePoint patch, and more

Mac's don't get malware?

Don't think I've heard that one before, it's usually 'Mac's don't get viruses'.

Still, any reason to knock Apple eh!

Who's that padding down the chimney? It's Puma, with its weird £80 socks for gamers

Re: £80 for a pair of socks?

It's for sustaining less damage/pain from random LEGO/3-pin plug undesirables.

Admins sigh as Microsoft pushes Teams changes – let everyone play!

Wait!

Till a year's time when Microshaft can the app with 2 months notice.

Then there will be years.....

IBM HR made me lie to US govt, says axed VP in age-discrim legal row: I was ordered to cover up layoffs of older workers

Re: Some companies don't even pretend ....

I REALLY hope you took a breath in the middle there.....

The US Army recruits WALL-E Chris H as its next-generation bomb disposal robot

Re: is it alive?

Nice software!

'Literally a paperweight': Bose users fume at firmware update that 'doesn't fix issues'

Re: Not impressed with Bose

You said that very firmly.....

UK ads watchdog slaps Amazon for UX dark arts after folk bought Prime subs they didn't want

You get higher prices for the same item. What do you think pays for Prime?

Remember the 1980s? Oversized shoulder pads, Metal Mickey and... sticky keyboards?

Re: Luxury!

You youngsters today an' yer online porn, WE 'ad it hard!

NOTE: I haven't heard it called 'crank the 'ol Babbage' since 1892!

We read the Brexit copyright notices so you don't have to… No more IP freely, ta very much

Re: Take Back Control?

Troll

Article 50 is 3/4 of an A4 page, Straightforward English with no hidden meanings.

It simply states the method by which an EU member state can withdraw from the EU and how the transition period can be extended but only IF THE EU MEMBER STATE IN QUESTION REQUESTS IT.

You haven't read it, or if you have you are too dumb to understand it or lying, probably both.

Re: I am just going to ignore it and

I listened to Michael Heseltine's speech when I was in Parliament Square last Saturday and I particularly like this observation (paraphrased for clarity), which should give anybody, Leaver or Remainer, pause for thought -

‘Trade deals take so long because they can be hijacked by small groups in any one of the EU member state parliaments or even local authorities, leaving us at the mercy of every European pressure group.

They probably call it taking back control!’