Posts by nijam

Whoops, our bad, we just may have 'accidentally' left Google Home devices recording your every word, sound, sorry

> ... the writing lacked any substance ...

So just like an internet self-help page after all.

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

Re: I must be missing something...

> An option in Excel settings...

Yes, for example to delete Excel and run some other spreadsheet.

Microsoft runs a data centre on hydrogen for 48 whole hours, reckons it could kick hydrocarbon habit by 2030

Re: Hydrogen is not the answer

> ...less chance of hydrogen "pooling" ...

unless your rooms have ceilings, of course.

Bad news: Your Cisco switch is a fake and an update borked it. Good news: It wasn't designed to spy on you

Re: Computer misuse act

... they aren't allowed to come round and crush it

No, but if you take it through French customs, they might crush it, and (if you're lucky) let you get your stuff (and yourself) out of the car first.

UK smacks Huawei with banhammer: Buying firm's 5G gear illegal from year's end, mobile networks ordered to rip out all next-gen kit by 2027

Re: This will end in tears.

... the only people who think this are those who LOST

Well, the whole of the country, then.

Devuan Beowulf 3.0 release continues to resist the Debian fork's Grendel – systemd

Re: "It solves a problem that people have."

> damning with faint praise

Damning with fake praise, I think.

Chicago: Why I just grin like a dork... It's my kind of Bork

Re: Jumped up quiche?

Quiche is just a pretentious name for a flan.

As Brit cyber-spies drop 'whitelist' and 'blacklist', tech boss says: If you’re thinking about getting in touch saying this is political correctness gone mad, don’t bother

No, a colourist is someone who applies colour to original monochrome images (e.g. old photographs).

GCC 10 gets security bug trap. And look what just fell into it: OpenSSL and a prod-of-death flaw in servers and apps

Re: El Reg (or the readership) really has changed

> Boeing, an aerospace company…

Are they still?

UK judge gives Google a choice: Either let SEO expert read your ranking algos or withdraw High Court evidence

Alternatively...

... the whole SEO business is itself a huge scam anyway?

Oh ****... Sudo has a 'make anyone root' bug that needs to be patched – if you're unlucky enough to enable pwfeedback

Re: SUDepressing

... Anyone up for safesudo? ...

As I recall, sudo was supposed to be a "safe su". I don't use BSD myself, but doas appears to have exactly the same functionality as sudo.

Re: SUDO and +s is a design weakness

... admin privileges do not depend on a well known UID but on group membership ...

That's only a cosmetic difference. Sudo itself can use group-based permissions, though whether you gain anything is unclear. I know, from years of involvement, that Windows' group-based permissions also degenerate into an unholy mess as soon as you need anything non-trivial.

Thunderbird is go: Mozilla's email client lands in a new nest

Re: I've stopped using it

> ... if O365 makes them 1% more productive

That's quite a big "if" though.

One-time Brexit Secretary David Davis demands Mike Lynch's extradition to US be halted

Re: Rabid Dog

> ... valid US warrant ...

Nowadays one wonders if there is such a thing.

Stiff upper lip time, Brits: After bullying France to drop its digital tax on Silicon Valley, Trump's coming for you next

Re: "We have full employment."

Those calls are just the voice of racism, I think there's no real evidence that anyone's job has been stolen, let alone on a large scale.

Re: But, but, but ...

"Sovereignty" is just a pretentious word meaning "enough financial and military muscle to do what you like".

We've pretty much not had that since WW1, in reality.

LibreOffice 6.4 nearly done as open-source office software project prepares for 10th anniversary

Re: PIM

> but what if you don't really want to give Google all your information?

Rather them, than Microsoft, in my (no doubt minority) opinion.

Re: LIbreOffice Turns 10

"Everything in the Cloud"?

There is no cloud, it's just somebody else's computer.

Re: Lost for words

> I discovered Libre Office blocking my attempts to install Open Office

Why would you even do that, since in pretty well every respect OpenOffice is, in effect, an outdated version of LibreOffice?

Re: O365 does not have the upper hand ...

> The fact that they can sell the whole integrated MS catalogue to corps based on ...

... flummoxing the non-techies in Procurement.

Re: "Has LibreOffice succeeded?"

> Given how management is so attached to their pretty graphics

Which indicates they are the kind of people who are impressed by the Beano, I'd suggest.

Fuming French monopoly watchdog is so incensed by Google's 'random' web ad rules, it's fining the US giant, er, <1% annual profit

I think you're all reading too much into this.

Since long before Google was founded, France (and obviously, they're not the only culprits) have been rigging rules and regulations to their own benefit.

Plus ca change, eh? Or should that be quelle surprise?

Someone get Greenpeace on the line. Boffins clock carbon 'pollution' cloud 30,000 light-years wide choking galaxies

Re: There's something VAG isn't telling us..

> It's always worse than they thought...

It's never been as bad as they thought.

Thanks, Brexit. Tesla boss Elon Musk reveals Berlin as location for Euro Gigafactory

Re: It's not Brexit Per Se

> It's more that Brexit isn't done and there is massive uncertainly

Once brexit is "done" (and so are we), we will look back on the last two-plus years of "uncertainty" as a golden age.

'Peregrine falcon'-style drone swarms could help defend UK against Gatwick copycat attacks

Re: Do Peregrines hunt pork?

> A swam of peregrine bots sounds like a great place to hide a rogue drone.

Obligatory reference: Asimov's "Little Lost Robot".

Re: Peregrine falcon drones

> When an intruder drone is spotted, normal flights in the area are put on hold whilst the seek-and-destroy squadron swarms out and kills the interloper.

And when they can't find it (because it's imaginary, after all), they'll get frustrated, so the scenario becomes "When an intruder drone is spotted, normal flights in the area are put on hold whilst the seek-and-destroy squadron swarms out and kills the flights on hold."

Delayed, over-budget smart meters will be helpful – when Blighty enters 'Star Trek phase'

Re: Complete and utter waste of money unless you want to spy on people

> ... efficient dishwasher and washing machine

For most domestic wash loads, tumble-drying uses more power than the washing machine.

Just saying, for those who can't dry their washing on a a washing line, for whatever reason.

How do we stop filling the oceans with Lego? By being a BaaS-tard, toy maker suggests

Re: Wrong Problem

> They aren't made with quite the same precision, or in quite as good quality plastic

Although that's mainly right, there are now quite a large number of Lego clones and compatibles*; some are indeed awful, but some are nearly as good as the one true Lego.

* last time I looked, even Airfix models appeared to incorporate some Lego-style connectors.

Re: Eh?

> Plastic is used for a reason

If only I could upvote this a thousand-fold

Allowlist, not whitelist. Blocklist, not blacklist. Goodbye, wtf. Microsoft scans Chromium code, lops off offensive words

> On the one hand, this sort of self-conscious language shifting drives a wedge between us and every previous generation, which is bad.

Worse than that, actually. In much less than a generation, the newly-approved euphemism inevitably become the new, exactly-as-bad, insult. Most of us, surely, have witnessed that often enough already.

> *no idea how to phonetically do this

If IPA (no, not the beer) isn't helping, how about row-ter? A router (pronounced rooter) is something that decides routes. A router (pronounced row-ter) is a woodworking tool that cuts grooves or edge profiles.

GIMP open source image editor forked to fix 'problematic' name

Re: The very word "disabled" is an ableist term...

> Some prefer the PC term 'differently abled'!

So, how long until "different(ly)" is considered offensive?

Electric vehicles won't help UK meet emissions targets: Time to get out and walk, warn MPs

Re: 50 miles???

> They could not create a parity in costs between fuel and electric.

Of course they can, it's called "road pricing" (other terms are available). Your satnav knows where you've been...

Re: 50 miles???

> ... a ban on political science majors standing for parliament

Yes, when I hear people say "a degree in PPE", I take that to mean ""three years wasted on ill-informed opinions".

I could throttle you right about now: US Navy to ditch touchscreens after kit blamed for collision

Re: Touch screens

> I think everyone should have to ride a bike before they're allowed in a car, they might learn something.

Yes, how to be an arrogant and obstructive, since cyclists seem to get the hang of that skill long before other road users manage to pick it up.

Microsoft hikes cost of licensing its software on rival public clouds, introduces Azure 'Dedicated' Hosts

> OR != XOR

That's the case in Boolean logic, but not in everyday English.

Dutch cheesed off at Microsoft, call for Rexit from Office Online, Mobile apps over Redmond data slurping

> Microsoft has maintained that it would work with customers and governments in EU to get all of its products in compliance.

Why does it even need to? It is well aware that it should never have been collecting this information.

How surprised are we?

2001: Linux is cancer, says Microsoft. 2019: Hey friends, ah, can we join the official linux-distros mailing list, plz?

"...it’s their responsibility to fix known security bugs as..."

"It's their marketing department's responsibility to scaremonger by using security bugs"

FTFY

Drone fliers are either 'clueless, careless or criminal' says air traffic gros fromage

Re: "either 'clueless, careless or criminal'”

> "either 'clueless, careless or criminal'”

Same as the requirement for a bureaucrat addressing a parliamentary committee, as it happens.

Behold the might of dynamic crimefighting duo Captain Met Police and the Microsoft Kid

> ...aspects here that would work against the US government trying to use those kinds of processes to access the data...

I think you misunderstand. The US Gov. wouldn't be asking the Met., they'd ask Microsoft, who as a US company under US law would be be obliged to comply - and probably would be forbidden from notifying the Met.

Large Redmond Collider: CERN reveals plan to shift from Microsoft to open-source code after tenfold license fee hike

> ...option 2 involves risk and option 1 doesn't ...

No risk with option 1, you get complete certainty of a total fail.

Re: Document formats

Yes, we have routinely needed to use LibreOffice (and OpenOffice before that) to repair Word documents that the user's copy of Word can't read for some reason. Simply open in LibreOffice then save as '.doc' format, problem solved.

Except that the real problem is Word (coupled with user's determination to use it).

Like using the latest version of Microsoft Office? Love Offline Files? Not for long!

Re: Your files

> ... whether these businesses actually rely in these features, or they just think they do.

No thinking involved, the M$ sales droid has told them that

(a) they rely on the features [unlikely, but just possibly the case]

and

(b) LO doesn't have those features [probably even less likely].

Planes, fails and automobiles: Overseas callout saved by gentle thrust of server CD tray

> "almost the last rack we searched"

Why not actually the last rack? Or does that have too embarrassing an answer?

We ain't afraid of no 'ghost user': Infosec world tells GCHQ to GTFO over privacy-busting proposals

Re: Here we go again...

> for example to stop terrorists

How can this mouthpiece (a) be so naive as to think that's what it will actually be used for,

(b) be so naive as to believe that non-CGA crooks won't be the first to exploit it, and (c) be so naive as to think any informed person will believe him anyway.

It's so depressing that terrorism now seems to encompass expressing any opinion - or indeed fact - that someone in some government department finds inconvenient.

IEEE tells contributors with links to Chinese corp: Don't let the door hit you on Huawei out

Re: Ho hum

You seriously believe the ITU was was any better? A collection of state-run telecoms organisations, state-mandated telecoms monopolies, and assorted similar vested interests. We'd still be on 300 baud analogue wires if they'd had their way.

Re: Presitator for life

> ... he cannot conceive of someone not voting for him, therefore if anyone does it is down to fraud, fake news, etc.

which constitutes proof in his mind*, and consequently his supporters will immediately agree.

* Yes, I know, not really a mind, is it?

Let 15 July forever be known as P-Day: When UK's smut fans started being asked for their age

Re: Clarification

> Please can we get clarification of what constitutes "Pr0n"

Short answer - no. The law is extremely unclear on this, and, I believe, deliberately so.

Unionised BT workers reject plans to revamp pay, grading structures

> Unions are an essential tool for staff

Unions used to be an essential tool for staff. Nowadays they seem (in my experience) to be an entirely self-serving "company within a company" whose role is to (a) preserve themselves (b) to promote themselves by increasing the number of members they "represent". Actual representation, if it occurs, is a purely accidental side effect of (b).

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

> They employ people who were educated at state schools and benefit from their education

You may be happy with a doctor whose education was exclusively at state schools; but I believe you're in a minority.

To go beyond A-level, a typical medical degree in the UK leaves the doctor encumbered with between £50,000 and £100,000 of debt.