Posts by Only me!

Tesla Full Self-Driving 'fails' to notice child-sized objects in testing

Re: Comparison

FSD says nothing about stopping.

UK.gov threatens to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

Re: How to stop it dead.

That reminds me, did a councillor complain about his local council website having adverts for bides?

Up until someone pointed out the ads were based on his browser history?

Apple aptly calls its wireless over-the-ear headphones the AirPods Max – as in, maximum damage to your wallet

Lock in to far!

If I buy a TV I expect to be able to connect it to a source that shows moving pictures....

If I buy head phones I expect to connect them to things that play music.

Ok so the wire might have gone, but for the cost of these things they should connect to anything Bluetooth that produces sound.

This is a lock in too far!!!!!!

(And I thought lock ins were band during lockdown....sorry)

Biden projected to be the next US President, Microsoft joins rest of world in telling Trump: It looks like... you're fired

Re: Good

I would comment on this article, but do not trust that the voting system will give me all the thumbs up I want.

5 months later, 37.7% of Windows 10 PCs are running the May 2020 Update... Wait, people are still on 1809?

I have a Surface pro 5 LTE and it has failed to upgrade to Windows 10 May 2020 Update (aka 2004).....it just keeps failing.

The way I am looking at it, is that at least the thing is working and I get the security updates.

If Microsoft are failing to get their own hardware to update, it does not fill you with confidence!!!

Bill Gates debunks 'coronavirus vaccine is my 5G mind control microchip implant' conspiracy theory

Bill

Now let's get this into some sort of level headed reality.

1. Like MS or hate it, fine....now let's move on.

MS has made Bill $$$ - Fact, love it or hate it.

But as one of the worlds richest people, he has put is money to good work, saving millions of lives across the globe. (Fact, love it or hate it)

I would rather he works away at various health issues / plans / vaccines than the vast majority of other people.

After IBM axed its face-recog tech, the rest of the dominoes fell like a house of cards: Amazon and now Microsoft. Checkmate

Re: Not quite equivalent

The police department with Amazon prime will be most miffed

There's always a coronavirus angle these days: Honor intros new smartphone with built-in temperature sensor

Why not, when you travel there you get checked

China has had temperature checks at airports for years now, so having a temperature checking device with you, will allow you to check your self before getting to the airport and then been taken away somewhere. Instead you could self isolate, go and get a test, go to hospital.....whichever is most appropriate.

Trump issues toothless exec order to show donors, fans he's doing something about those Twitter twerps

Free Speach

Is this the same D Trump that wanted to ban people replying to his tweets because he did not like what they said.....one rule for him and another for the masses.

Twitter / Facebook, etc. are full of people from all sides saying whatever they like.....but there needs to be some rules for ALL to abide by, otherwise society just falls apart and it is everyone for themselves. Now I am not religious (unlike Mr D Trump....cough, I believe him!), but I am sure that there is no religion that says "I am alright, so sod you", but I could be wrong!

Not a Genius move after all: Apple must cough up $$$ in back pay for store staff forced to wait for bag searches

Re: Minimum wage?

I am all for a mean deviation rather that standard one........see icon

Microsoft Surface Pro X: Windows on Arm usable at long last – but, boy, are you gonna pay for it

Pro 6 LTE

I have a Pro 6 LTE, works great. It is an i5 as they replaced the fan with the LTE stuff, ok they only produced it with 8GB RAM for some reason. That said these are designed to be portable, not gaming machines. Works perfectly well for me,

I just never understood why they did not try and push it more, it seemed a "business" only machine, do they really think that in this day and age that only business people would like LTE in a laptop?

Has outsourcing public-sector IT worked? The Institute for Government seems to think so, kinda

LOL

Well, I have no idea how that's worked out.

I have worked in the public sector for years and all of the out sourced IT is both useless and expensive.....Moving a PC £950.....Quote for a quote £75K (Yep, that's just to get the quote!!! The work in itself only cost £60K....once we worked around the IT Supplier)....BT, Serco, Capita....et al....they are all the same beast.

1. Say you are 100% "work" committed. (So whatever you are asking for will cost)

2. Never say yes in ANY meeting

3. Every time some one asks....it is a sales opportunity.

The "original" contract to take over is just getting the foot in the door....once you are in, they screw the client to the floor!!!!

Outsourcing does/can work...but you have to know what you are outsourcing, why you are doing it and have all the angles covered....that is the bit that gov fails on!

Alexa, can you tell me how many Chinese kids were forced into working nights to build this unit?

Re: Plausible Deniability

They are too busy doing quality control on the devices to do quality control on the workforce welfare!

I bet they undertake "vigorous Amazon" oversight on the quality of the product....but only "local oversight" on the grieve it causes the thousands of workers.

Only exert the power, where it will decrease profits, not where it will increase profits, is my "cynical" thinking.

Shocking!!!! But why am I not surprised?

Ohm my God: If you let anyone other than Apple replace your recent iPhone's battery, expect to be nagged by iOS

End of life

I think it is worse than people think.....they give you 1 year warranty (even though EU and UK state it should be more) when the battery dies, as accepted, they want you to then go back to them even though they say it is "out of warranty" when you say it is broken and will not charge!

So they wish to screw you from both ends! That is very fruity! (and they are not alone in this deviance!)

There's Huawei too many vulns in Chinese giant's firmware: Bug hunters slam pisspoor code

2 Years

2 Years security is all you get from google on the Pixel .... plus China is behind in this....give it 1 to 2 years to be fair to them. IT is fast...the US is still not perfect in these matters ... glass houses and stones and all that!

This isn't Boeing to end well: Plane maker to scrap some physical cert tests, use computer simulations instead

As headlines go ....Top dog!!!!

See above

There's no 'My' in Office, Microsoft insists with new productivity hub

"you do, of course, need your own Microsoft account to access the goodies."

LOL. Do you really think you own your account....you should be thanking them for granting temp access to you!

Steamer closets, flying cars, robot boxers, smart-mock-cock ban hypocrisy – yes, it's the worst of CES this year

Toys

Obviously sex toys do not go down very well at CES.

They only allow men to have pop up stands!!!

Ready for Glasto-net? Cheap, local low-power networks up for grabs in the UK

Local Network for local people

IF the costs are going to be so low, I wonder what the options are for setting up a local ISP for say your 50-100 closest friends....i.e. next door....all contribute to the one network. 50*£15-£20 per month is a tidy sum and may allow this to happen.

It may get over the FTTC.....set up the base station right next to the cabinet....one can dream, it is Xmas after all

In news that will shock absolutely no one, America's cellphone networks throttle vids, strangle rival Skype

Why?

Dear ISP

I pay you to deliver xGB at x speed.....it is that simple....if I want more I will pay and you deliver....it is that simple....if I go over the limit, cut me off.....but just deliver xGB at x speed..because that is what I have paid you to do!

Oh and while I am on about it....Ajit Pai ....no, no...do not get me started, just, just.... */ Hits head on keyboard so hard I now need to go to A&E /*

Love and kisses

All internet users

ZX Spectrum reboot scandal firm's original directors rejoin

This is taking longer to play out than......

Loading the original games....remember have loads of games on a C90 tape, because you could not afford to buy a few C30's.....loading them was very hit and miss! Unlike this saga....at least some of it work in the end!!!

Ok it is Friday so it must be beer o'clock for all those that member the good old days of 80's!

Lucky, lucky, Westminster residents: Who better to look after your housing benefits than Capita?

Fewer Things Better

That makes me chuckle....I do not know of one thing they do well now.

I do know lots of things they do really badly!

Fewer things better......if I read that the correct way that means, they aim to get worse. i.e. We will do fewer things and less well than we are now!

Have you ever, ever felt like this? Have strange things happened? Is high-speed data going round the twist?

100 Fold - Nope!

That is not what the numbers sate! 100 times yes!

300,000 BT pensioners await Court of Appeal pension scheme ruling

Pensions

Holland (I think) have made future pensions better off in one stoke. They band the 1% a year and made it max £x a year.

Thus over 50 years....they made people 1% a year better off.....which adds up to a lot of money!

Do I hear two million dollars? Apple-1 fossil goes on the block, cassettes included

Sinclair Calculator Collection

My Sinclair calculator collection will be worth more than you Psion ever will......(Well to be it will do and that is all that matters to me!!!)

It must be beer o'clock by now.....time to stop reading Le Reg...cough I mean leave work!

Emma's Diary fined £140k for flogging data on over a million new mums to Labour Party

UK's 11 main political parties

11 MAIN parties......wow is there really that many of them?

Somehow there just seems to be 2.5 and the 0.5 bit is the only thing that changes.

For all the excitement, Pie may be Android's most minimal makeover yet – thankfully

Re: It's a Wonderful Life

Bluetooth...ok very bad at the start, but has been around now for years.....so.....

Why do some devices manage to work quickly and flawlessly with loads of devices, yet others fail? Simple poor design, hardware short cuts or software being crap! Simple as.

By now it should work, quickly, flawlessly and well....across all devices...if your company ties to over do it with its own complications then stuff you.......a LOT of companies are making things harder to work together now than in the 1980's......is it just because they can? But our headphones they work "better" with out device? for example......all of a sudden it works!

Apple takes an axe to its App Affiliate Program

What a nice firm

So all the little websites that helped make the Apple Apps Store what it is are just thrown to the four winds....after years of promoting the company.

What a lovely company to have as a "Partner"

B4$T4RD$.....

That said, all the big players try and use the same process......get them hooked with a good deal, make it worse, stop the payments.

UK privacy watchdog to fine Facebook 18 mins of profit (£500,000) for Cambridge Analytica

How much did the investigation cost?

I bet the real cost of the investigation cost was over £500,000 and some twonk in a government office thinks £500,000 is a lot of money!

They broke the rules....they CERTAINLY knew they were braking the rules....they CONTINUE to break the rules.....so why let them trade in the UK, EU?

Only a good hard slap up the money grabbing box will get them to change....even then only to the minimum requirement. So be very, very careful about what you state as the minimum.

One place to start is to make opting out just as easy as opting in. And if you opt in, they tell you who is allowed to slurp and for what...IN PLAIN English, which is not an easy thing to do.

Galileo, here we go again. My my, the Brits are gonna miss EU

Re: Brexit means Brexit

May be it does.....but the EU expect the UK to pay for all the projects they were involved with., so the Eu gets it.....this we pay and get nothing? Leave is leave, but to me leave is take what you paid for.......stay in you keep what you paid for and what you will pay for........mmmm

Microsoft has another crack at fixing Chrome problems in Windows 10

Downdate not Update

The update was shocking BSOD every few mins...I was unable to work....by the time I had everything opened up and connected it would die again....and I am using a NEW SURFACE which really says how bad it is when MS hardware becomes useless....best fix I found for Chrome is:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -disable-direct-composition

Anyway...fingers crossed it has not died in the last week......wonder if I can remove the -disable-direct-composition yet?

GDPR forgive us, it's been one month since you were enforced…

Why is it not>>>

Opting in....BIG button PRESS HERE for your INSTANT GRATIFICATION!

Opt out.....here have x pages, links, making it almost impossible. (That is NOT a choice!)

Make it

1. Opt in

2. Opt in to "buy only" (I am sure there are other reasons that apply) and sod off (Option 1 covers buying stuff)

3. Sod off but I know I have to accept random ads, because you need the money...but no more ads than the ones that opted for option 1.

4. Down to you as a person....block ads...delete cookies, etc.etc....as it is now

Who wants to cram some BOFH skills into their brains? How about from, er, Google?

Re: An actual BOFH cert.

Sign me up of BOFH cert.....but it better be from a Centre of learning on a Center!

Otherwise I might have to put things in to practice precertification......and no one would want that to happen.....sorry was that an open window?

Atari accuses El Reg of professional trolling and making stuff up. Welp, here's the interview tape for you to decide...

Re: Hahashahahahahahaahah!

I see one PR person from Atari is reading the comments LOL

(one down vote for you fab comment as I type this)

Strip Capita of defence IT contract unless things improve – Brit MPs

Why stop at defence?

They should be striped of a lot more.....every time I encounter them, the project costs 3 times what it should....and then there are the delays on going costs for the smallest things, etc....they are all the same Capita, BT, Serco, etc......

Former FBI boss Comey used private email for official business – DoJ

Beer is the answer on National Beer Day

If I have enough beer, I might get my head around why he did this......but I will have forgotten by the morning (for security purposes)!!!!

How Google's Smart Compose for Gmail works – and did it fake its robo-caller demo?

Sod the story!

That pic is fabulous!!!!

Can the frog sue Google of colour infringement/copyright......or anything really :-)

It has more chance than the monkey ever did of winning with the selfie!

HMRC opens consultation to crack down on off-payroll working in private sector

Sides of a coin

I am a contractor, as such as undertake project work....when completed I hand over to a business as usual team and leave (Thanking my luck stars I am out of there). My contract is to implement, there is no permanent role for what I do, I therefore fall outside IR35. (I know there are many other boxes o tick, but I am trying to keep it simple). When the client, as they often do, try and tell me how to do what I do, I ask them what experience they have and why do they need, if they know how to do it better than me.....on a couple of times I have walked on that basis. To be fair most of the time they understand I offer something at a cost that they do not require long term...I do the complex stuff and hand over a system that an employee can then look after.

I know A LOT of people that claimed they were contractors but were "Filling" permanent roles. i.e. If they were not there a full time employee would be.....now that is inside IR35....if they need to pay more to get a temp person in with the skills they need then the employer should pay the premium and treat the person in the permanent role like an employee when they are there!

Simples in my book.....I have no problem working in the public sector on that basis....I have even worked on contracts they wanted inside IR35 until I asked, some very direct and simple questions, at which point they moved it to outside IR35.

Stephen Hawking dies, aged 76

Enjoy you trip in space and time

Enjoy you trip in space and time

Age checks for UK pr0n site visitors on ice as regulator cobbles together some guidance

Gov and modern tech....not a match made in heaven!

It is like trying to ban electric from the power supply because someone used it to power their PC for hacking!

BOFH: Honourable misconduct

Re: Script for Leave

Waterproof (beerproof) pockets and a long straw for siphoning it off sir.

Script for Leave

Must get a copy to compare with the one I am currently using.....just to see if I can make efficiency improvements. The management are always asking for efficiency improvements.

Mines the one with the beer in the pocket!

AccuWeather: Our app slurped your phone's location via Wi-Fi but we like totally didn't use it

Big Biz....and BIG Biz

So if a "small" biz collects data OH panic..............Small biz, they are millions and a bit of change

Billions................and millions as change

Google, Facebook, Microsoft......that's fine

mmmmmm

Try opting out, never that simple...............try and opt of ads!

Sysadmin Day 2017: Still time to get the beers in

Why have this on a quite day, when I can actually get something done?

Great ... why do we have this day on one of the quietest days in the office over the summer....about the only day where you can get work done!!!!

Anyway, I am sure they will understand .... pub o'clock....count me in

Hey, remember that monkey selfie copyright drama a few years ago? Get this – It's just hit the US appeals courts

Re: Just sayin'

What does Paris think of who owns the pictures?

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser

Re: Coming soon to the UK...

It is really important that we protect our citizens.......nice to see the next UK and USA laws are been written by Russia and China.....three cheers for our glorious leaders!

Brit prosecutors ask IT suppliers to fight over £3 USB cable tender

Tender

I think all the small people should consider a "blind" biding process, to see where the floor is in the procurement.....so all tender away.

Think I will start mine at £30,000 as it is a special one off procurement, which therefore means I have to put a specialist on the job who will require a manager and project manager....project plans will need to be drawn up and a factory visit to China. All very essential.

One-third of Brit IT projects on track to fail

I am yet to work on any project that has not had all of these factors in play......

1. Significant changes to the project brief

2. Unrealistic timeframes

3. A incomplete understanding of the risks

4. Projects not resourced with the right people

5. Lack of a clearly defined goals

6. Overrun budgets

On the bright side, it keeps me in work. As I type I am just about to commence on yet another "Please help us fix it" gig.....only after points 1 to 6 do you any form of reality on a project.

Edinburgh Uni email snafu tells students they won't be graduating

Re: three or four years of sex, booze and drugs...

Well done....more people need to put back in, what they got out.

Everyone says they paid tax for x years.....and they are now entitled. That was a golden era! (Maybe fairer after post war?)

But now we have spent the money people put in and young have to pay for themselves the old and a house (which they cannot), but odd how they can pay for the rent that pays for the house!!!!

House deposits are killing them as are the student debts.......or will be....credit cards are a whole other world of pain.