Posts by User McUser

Through the Looking Glass – holographic display hardware is great, but it's not enough

HeadTracking

You can do a lot of amazing 3D looking effects simply by doing head tracking

This YouTube video from 2007 shows it well - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw (The 3D parts start at 2m30s in)

Tachyum's Prodigy emulator achieves first boot, runs Linux and says 'hello, world'

Still waiting for the Atom Chip

Personally, I'm still waiting for the previous unbelievable breakthrough in CPUs to be released - The Atom Chip

Hyundai reveals the robotaxi it built for Lyft, and a version for its very own metaverse

Remote Control

the vehicles come equipped with Remote Vehicle Assistance (RVA) which allows a remote Motional operator to take control if needed.

This seems unwise to me. Better hope their security is up to scratch!

Boffins find if you torture AMD Zen+, Zen 2 CPUs enough, they are vulnerable to Meltdown-like attack

Re: Meh

Obligatory XKCD link: https://xkcd.com/538/

'Prophetic' Steve Jobs autograph telling kid to 'go change the world!' among Apple memorabilia at auction

Wait, what?

[...] a software venture whose games were distributed with JVC video cameras.

Ummmm, what? Why would a video camera come with video games? So confused...

Remember when Microsoft devs got so excited about Windows 8 features, Twitter thought it was under attack?

Completely unbelivable story

You expect us to believe that somebody was able to call Twitter on the phone and a human being answered?

You gotta make this stuff more plausible if you want to be taken seriously...

Windows 11 still doesn't understand our complex lives – and it hurts

Three Ways to be Multiple people on the same Windows box

You can use "Switch User" from the CAD menu to change from one login to another without having to log out - bit of a pain and no shared clipboard between them though.

Or you can hold down Shift and right-click on an icon and choose "Run As Different User" to launch the app in your user-space but with different credentials - permissions may get weird in this case and things like the Desktop and "My Documents" folders are redirected to the executing user's profile. Plus if the application is installed in the User profile (like Teams is) this won't work at all; ditto for any applications that don't use standard .LNK shortcut files (looking at you, Microsoft Office) though you can manually create new shortcuts as needed.

If you want to get fancy, AND have the "Pro" or Enterprise version of Windows you can use the Remote Application feature with localhost to run with different credentials though this takes a LOT of work to implement correctly. The good news is that you'll have access to your own files and folders through the RDP protocol. Bad news, it uses the RDP protocol. This utility helps a lot by setting up the Remote App settings for you: https://github.com/kimmknight/remoteapptool and providing a handy .RDP file as well.

‘Fasten your seat belts, raise your tray table, and disconnect your Bluetooth headsets from the entertainment unit’

If only it were that easy.

Obligatory XKCD comic - https://xkcd.com/2055/

British minister claims technology makes maritime cannibalism obsolete

Dear Sir

As a naval officer I abhor the implication that the Royal Navy is a haven for cannibalism. It is well known that we now have the problem relatively under control, and that it is the RAF who now suffer the largest casualties in this area.

Yours etc.

Captain B.J. Smethwick (in a white wine sauce with shallots, mushrooms and garlic.)

Apple vs Epic Games trial kicks off featuring the same old arguments, hundreds of angry Zoombombing tweens

Re: Epic must have been asleep at the wheel

I doubt if Epic's pockets are deep enough to survive this.

From the article: "Fortnite was the highest-grossing game in 2019, with revenues of $1.8bn across all platforms, including iOS, Android, Xbox One, PC, and the PS4." [Emphasis added.]

I know lawyers can be expensive, but I think Epic will be just fine.

CERN boffins zap antimatter with ultraviolet lasers in the hope of revealing the secret symmetry of the universe

Re: defeating the Big Bang theory

the problem with anti-matter is that, if indeed anti-matter is exactly the opposite of normal matter, as all current experiments have measured, then the Big Bang theory is false: it stipulates that our universe was born from a big bang of energy, but then equal amounts of matter an anti-matter should have been created, which is observably false.

I am not a physicist but it seems to me that if there "should" have been equal amounts of matter and antimatter at the Big Bang AND if the CPT thing is true, then the "simple" answer is that there WAS (is?) equal amounts of both matter and antimatter, each moving through Time in opposite directions with the Big Bang as a central point between them.

Basically out there somewhere/somewhen in what we would call the distant "past" (eg: "before" the Big Bang) there exists an antimatter universe equal to ours but with the arrow of time reversed. From that universe's perspective our anti-matter universe collapsed in on itself and spawned their matter universe. And from our perspective we would see the same exact thing.

Proof that Surface devices are not a niche product obsessed over by Microsoft fans: A patent lawsuit from Caltech

Re: So now we can make a pretty good guess about Broadcom, Linux, and non-open "blobs"........

If they really did invent the thing then they probably could have just bought a chip, plugged it into some sort of testing rig and compared its function to their original experimental findings.

Plus Broadcom probably publishes a lot of the technical information already. After all, you gotta know what the chip does in order to use it in the laptops and gaming consoles you're building.

Remember Apple's disastrous butterfly keyboards? These lawsuits against the iGiant just formed a super class action

Who was that for anyways?

By which I mean, who keeps demanding thinner and thinner laptops?

To be clear, I don't miss the giant "luggables" from the 1980s/1990s but there is a point of diminishing returns and we crossed that line at least a decade ago.

IMHO, if it can't have a full-sized Ethernet (RJ45) port then it's too thin.

Privacy purists prickle at T-Mobile US plan to proffer people's personal web, app pursuits to ad promoters

Grammatic Ambiguity

including information we learn from your web and device usage data (like the apps installed on your device)

Are they using "like" to mean "similar to" or "such as"?

Or to put it more directly, are they tracking the shit I do the same way that the apps I use track me or is my phone blabbing to my service provider about what apps I have installed?

Surprise: Automated driving biz finds automated driving safer than letting you get behind the wheel

Shocker!!

I am shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you.

Who would have thought that Waymo run simulations would reveal how great Waymo is?

I mean, what are the odds?

Atheists warn followers of unholy data leak, hint dark deeds may have tried to make it go away

Well I've always said...

There's nothing an agnostic can't do if he really doesn't know whether he believes in anything or not.

Hey, maybe we should all be cat-faced eco-warriors on our daily video chats

Dial-Up

You could Zoom over a dial-up modem

You could also, you know, just call them on the phone.

Think of all the power you'll save with your PC turned off and unplugged...

Machine learning gets semi conscious... Waymo, Daimler vow to bring self-driving trucks to American highways

Level 4 Automation is insufficient

The partnership aims to build level-four automated trucks, which would use AI to perform all the necessary functions needed to drive autonomously for a whole trip, theoretically. It'll still need a human driver to take over when necessary, for safety and regulatory reasons.

Great, so the safety mechanism for a 16-Ton truck at highway speed is a person who for the last 4 hours has been sleeping, reading a book, watching a movie, or doing who knows what else because the thing drives itself 95% of the time, and is then expected to instantly and reliably take over the split second after the AI goes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?

Anything less than Level 5 Autonomous vehicles are unacceptable IMO. I mean, what's the point of a self-driving car if I randomly and unexpectedly have to take over driving due to some sort of emergency that the AI can't handle?

MacOS on Arm talk intensifies: Just weeks from now, Apple to serve up quarantini with Kalamata golive, reportedly

"I’ll never forget you, Windows Mobile 6.1."

No matter how much I drink...

The longest card game in the world: Microsoft Solitaire is 30

Speaking of OS/2...

The IBM provided version of Solitaire for OS/2 included the extremely helpful menu option "Cheat" - which, as you may have guessed, let you put any card anywhere.

Hooray! It's IT Day! Let's hear it for the lukewarm mugs of dirty water that everyone seems to like so much

No opinion...

I just drink whatever comes out of the Nutri-Matic machine...

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

If I may humbly suggest...

• Seattle Desktop Botherers
• The Great Beige Bloat
• Sysadmin Job Securers
• Paterson's Regret (perhaps a bit too obscure?)

It has been 20 years since cybercrims woke up to social engineering with an intriguing little email titled 'ILOVEYOU'

Never Learn Anything from History

Windows and Office apps would cheerfully conceal the extensions of known file types

And 20 years later, this is *still* the default setting in Windows for some reason...

Proof-of-concept open-source app can cut'n'paste from reality straight into Photoshop using a neural network

Re: Unintended consequences

'Taking a comfort break?'

Christ on a bike. This is an English publication, so let's not despoil it with ugly, squeamishly coy Americanism euphemisms for ordinary everyday things.

As an American, I just wanted to say that have *never* heard this expression before today. But it certainly sounds very "Are you Embarrassed Easily" British.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go pinch a loaf, make an offering to the porcelain throne, take the browns to the super bowl, drop a deuce, unload some timber, and bust a grumpy. Then after all that I have to take a shit.

Square peg of modem won't fit into round hole of PC? I saw to it, bloke tells horrified mate

Wrong era?

56k modems were available starting in 1997 so why the hell would some buy a 9600 baud modem in "the late 1990s"?

Perhaps they meant the late 1980s or the early 1990s?

Your phone wakes up. Its assistant starts reading out your text messages. To everyone around. You panic. How? Ultrasonic waves

Begs the question...

Why are the microphones in these devices even capable of picking up ultrasonic frequencies?

Even if that's just how a good quality microphone works these days, one would think that in a device intended for human vocal communication that any sounds above 20kHz would be considered useless noise and be removed via a low-pass filter.

The Ghost of Windows 10 Past shrinks back as Microsoft's axeman tiptoes ever closer

Re: "1809 update for Windows 10"

Or a boot stamping on a face forever...

Talk about making a rod for your own back: Pot dealer's seized €54m Bitcoins up in smoke after keys thrown out with fishing gear

Re: Riddle me this

A Type-II bitcoin rig? Not sure that's what Kardashev had in mind...

We need to make it even easier for UK terror cops to rummage about in folks' phones, says govt lawyer

Why is there always a time limit?

especially when counter-terrorism police are working against the clock

Because every single terrorist is a James Bond or 24 villain - they always have a time bomb (of one sort or another) and the only possible way to stop it is to unlock their phone, right?

Since when are laws based on cliches and tropes?

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

Re: She sounds like a f*****g nutcase.

This case probably tells us more about how our society (or in this case, US society) looks after people with such issues.

I agree that she likely has brain problems but from what little we know it seems she was an otherwise functional adult. How much responsibility does society really have to interfere with the life choices of someone like this? Apart from the theft (obviously), what real harm has she caused herself or others?

With a warehouse of unsold AR goggles, Magic Leap has a brainwave… let’s rebadge ‘em and sell to business!

Re: Contacts, anyone?

I suppose if you placed OLEDs on the front of the lenses that maybe-possibly-might could work?

However, being neither an engineer nor physicist (nor even an optometrist) I'm just making a wild guess.

We lose money on repairs, sobs penniless Apple, even though we charge y'all a fortune

Actually, they do make money on "Free" Apps

Apple makes none of nothing from the 84 per cent of apps that don’t charge.

Except for the fact that if one wants to put their "free" App into the AppStore, one must be a registered developer - at a cost of US$99 per year!

Watch out! Andromeda, the giant spiral galaxy colliding with our own Milky Way, has devoured several galaxies before

My god, it's full of stars...

I can only imagine how amazing the night sky will look 3.99BY from now. It's a shame I'll have to miss it, what with being dead and all...

Sleeping Tesla driver wonders why his car ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

I am curious to know if the car stopped itself after the collisions or if the alleged driver woke up and stopped it manually.

Based on the header pic on the article, the incident appears to have happened in North Carolina (approximately here); read into that what you will.

Not very bright: Apple geniuses spend two weeks, $10,000 of repairs on a MacBook Pro fault caused by one dumb bug

I know of at least three people with a Mac Book Pro that use an external display and keyboard to login every day. However these are "Late 2013 Retina" units so maybe they ruined this on the later models?

I say, Eaton boys are flogging spare capacity on data centre UPS systems to keep lights on in Ireland

Re: Really?

Except that will happen no matter what if the grid is down long enough. I still prefer the scenario where I get a check instead of the one where I don't.

Re: Really?

Scenario 1 - There is not enough power available on the grid leading to a brown/black out. Your UPS discharges stored power until grid power returns to normal keeping your servers up and running.

Scenario 2 - There is not enough power available on the grid leading to a brown/black out. Your UPS discharges stored power until grid power returns to normal keeping your servers up and running; also, you get some money.

I mean, I know which one *I* would pick.

Introducing 'freedom gas' – a bit like the 2003 deep-fried potato variety, only even worse for you

I'm convinced...

That we are definitely living in the dumbest of all possible realities.

Intel unveils Project Athena: Chipzilla tells lappy makers how to build their own kit

No, not over WiFi - it uses Bluetooth.

Personality quiz for all you IT bods: Are you a chameleon or an outlaw? A diplomat or a high flier? Vote right here

Generations

It also confirms our suspicion that millennials are not interested in earthly possessions: more than half (56 per cent) of Gen Z workers say a new challenge is more important than higher salary and other benefits (33 per cent.)

I would like to point out that Millennials and "Gen Z" are two different sets of people. The oldest Millennials are now in their early 40s[1] while the oldest members of "Gen Z" are less than 20 years old.

[1] Millennials were born between approximately 1980 and 2000, +/- a few years on either end depending on the specific definition you use.

Absolute mad lads are teaching physics to AI because how else will it learn to solve real-world problems (like humans)

PARC, which established in 1970, was responsible for such advances as [...] the computer mouse.

Pretty sure that computer mice existed prior to 1970...

New UK counter-terror laws come into force today – watch those clicks, people. You see, terrorist propag... NOOO! Alexa ignore us!

Re: "reasonable excuse defence"

Terrorick-rolling obviously...

Make America buy phones again! Smartphone doom 'n' gloom crosses Atlantic to cast shadow stateside

Current world population is around 7.5x10⁹ so it's closer to one quarter than one third. Also, some people have more than one phone which skews the numbers a bit.

But yeah, apparently they are.

Qualcomm wins Apple patent case, loses Apple patent case, wins Apple patent case, loses Apple patent case...

What a strange game...

The only winning move is to be a lawyer.

Age checks for online pr0n? I've never heard of it but it sounds like a good idea – survey

Potentially Harmful? What does that even mean?

children could stumble on "potentially harmful material"

Potentially (adverb) - possibly but not yet actually.

Your stove is "potentially harmful" - you could get burned if you touch the hot parts. Your car is "potentially harmful" - you might crash or it could break down and strand you somewhere. EVERYTHING is "potentially harmful" if you look at it in the right way.

Frankly I would be FAR more worried that my child might watch flat-earth videos or become an anti-vaxer after reading garbage websites than I would be worried that they saw an assortment of genitals and orifices interacting.

Our vulture listened to four hours of obtuse net neutrality legal blah-blah so you don't have to: Here's what's happening

The Definition of "Common Carrier"

It bothers me that people are so dismissive of the Communications Act being applied to the Internet. Sure, the technology underlying the communication system in question these days is completely different than that in 1934 - nobody is arguing otherwise. But the underlying principle - that the companies that own the "wires" can't control with *whom* you communicate nor the *content* of said communication - is what that law is really about. That principle is essentially the same as what is commonly known as "net neutrality" - no Internet service provider should be able to decide what sort of communications I get to have over the Internet. It's none of their concern - their job is to shuffle the bits back and forth as quickly as possible; no more, no less.

My Internet connection brings me entertainment, news, and personal correspondence in the form of audio, video, text, pictures. It allows me to do business by remote controlling my computer at work and have fun by playing video games with someone on the other side of the planet. I can interact with government services to renew a license plate or pay my taxes. I can buy groceries, order a pizza, pay my bills, and transfer money from checking to savings. Almost everything that I can do in the world at large, I can do over my Internet connection.

I cannot think of a more apt term for that connection than "common carrier."

Should the super-rich pay 70% tax rate above $10m? Here's Michael Dell's hot take for Davos

Also England

The UK had a marginal tax rate of 95% in the 60s.

The Beatles even wrote a song about it - Taxman - which has the line "One for you, Nineteen for me"

Dozens of .gov HTTPS certs expire, webpages offline, FBI on ice, IT security slows... Yup, it's day 20 of Trump's govt shutdown

Re: Comparison

They'll all get their back pay.

Except that in the meanwhile they can't pay their rent or buy things like food, gas, clothing, etc.

THIS time, Republicans aren't caving in

For TWO WHOLE YEARS (2017 & 2018) the Republicans had a majority in both the House and Senate and they didn't allocate a single cent to the wall. POTUS didn't seem to give a shit about it then so why all the drama now?

And besides, I thought that Mexico was supposed to pay for it.

Ding dong merrily on high. In Berkeley, the bots are singeing: Self-driving college cooler droid goes up in flames

Dagnabbit!

That is NOT what I meant when I ordered "Flaming Hot Cheetos."

Official: Voyager 2 is now an interstellar spacecraft

Re: I was around 50 years ago, just barely

I have a feeling some billionaire will cause a ruckus a century from now by recovering one of them, bringing it back to Earth, and putting it on display in his house.

If it makes you feel better it would take a LOT of effort to do so.

Using chemical rockets would probably be too expensive to even just catch up to either Voyager probe, let alone return to Earth with them.

They're both currently traveling at more than 15km/s so you'd have to accelerate to a speed faster than that to catch up to one of them, then capture it and change direction to head back to earth. That's a *very* large amount of delta-V which means a tremendous amount of fuel would be needed.