Posts by an it guy

People find amazing ways to break computers. Cats are even more creative

Re: A mouse? How quaint.

Mine yesterday were standing over my hands, just in front of the keyboard, and that's okay as I can reasonably well touch type.

The second cat seems to want to nudge the mouse in my hand, and that can be disastrous when trying to drag and drop files, or simply type into a remote session. My hands move away from the keyboard fairly fast when they come in. After 5 minutes though, I do have to move the cats off to do any work.

On the upside when I'm doing a presentation and cats come in during a client call, you know the cat lovers by all the smiles, or sometimes a request to see the cat.

So it goes many ways to stopping work.

However, it's hard to keep a straight face when they deign to show their bums to the camera, and it's being recorded. Or when my nose is being tickled by a tail and I need to talk about something important/esoteric and useful

Trump wants to fire quarter of NASA budget into black hole – and not in a good way

Re: What was .... *ponder* ...

See https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/WalkerCD/WalkerCD_11-7-06.htm

China ever-so slightly softens stance on possible US TikTok sale

So how much will of the other 50% will be owned by trump interested companies?

Wouldn't be surprised if it happens that he "accidentally" profits from this

Your computer's not working? Sure, I can fix that problem – which I caused

Re: Computer wiped every month ?

"Just look at the number of apps on phones and tablets which have regular updates that says "bug fixes and performance improvements".

It's likely to include a change to any play store APIs that Google keeps changing that thry have to update with.

A nice cup of tea rewired the datacenter and got things working again

Re: "feel free to brew me a mug of strong Earl Grey with....

How has no one mentioned Pu Ehr tea. Jet black from the first cup till about the 8th refresh of water (or the 3rd full pot of tea), and can be steeped fro God knows how long without tasting bitter, ever.

And it's got more caffeine than other teas.

So earl grey with milk and sugar can be made to walk off a very short plank.

Remove the sugar and milk and I'll accept it

Microsoft tries to clear the air with mountains of CO₂ credits

Um, no

PPM measurements are not necessarily a proxy for large scale emissions. They are a measure of the systems that burn (in)efficiently, and are about how those particles (not molecules) that directly impact human health. Granted high PM2.5 is an indicator of lots of use of fossil fuels (or burning of trees/clearing farmland etc.), and so related to CO2 emissions, but if your power plants are generating CO2, or mining is generating emissions, it's not a direct measurement. Rather it's an indication of how crap the government is at regulating inefficient systems out of existence to improve public health, and often how poor people are to replace those inefficient systems

CO2 is not measured in PM2.5 as it's much much smaller.

(boffin hat because I've done a degree spent on trying to store that pain that is hydrogen)

Outback shocker left Aussie techie with a secret not worth sharing

Sounds like...

He managed to (ahem) avoid the short end of the stick

Microsoft unbundling Teams is to appease regulators, not give customers a better deal

Teams sucks if you're not part of the other person's company

I use Google meet, slack's huddle, teams, we ex, Skype for business (well, not recently), zoom and any others clients force on me.

I'm on a Mac, and the *only* one that I have to allow 5 minutes to logo for a meeting. The link to the "app" invariably fails with a "classic" app, and a white screen.

The others just work, although I prefer the Google meet setup requiring just a browser.

Okay zoom usually works, but if your organisation requires you do the zoom update just before you have a call with $important_client_who_cannot_use_anything_else well then you're stuffed as the zoom install takes another five minutes. Great job

Japanese supermarket watches you shop so AI can suggest more stuff to buy

Re: What I don't understand is how it's going to prompt / direct you?

So, I've just done that wander around with the app open

The Tesco app has a "shop in store thing that tells you which aisle a product is. Handy when one item can be on aisle 8 (dried, long life), 16 (fridge, sort of long life), and aisle 18 (because why would it be there? No idea

Use the app to circumvent needless walking and get out with the lowest price possible

Dell reneges on remote work promise, tells staff to wear pants at least 3 days a week

Re: I was happy today...

That last part about introverts is so important. All people need space to concentrate

As is loud people in an open plan office going and actively finding a meeting room before shouting their call across everyone else's reasonably volumed calls, and the loud person forcing everyone else to move because clients' can't hear you talk.

LibreOffice 7.5 update: A great time to jump on this FOSS productivity suite

Re: [Author here]

well, having opened a .docx file recently in pages on Mac. it sucked.

Downloaded libreoffice quickly and found it handled the formatting *much* better than pages did. I'm quite happy with Libreoffice

Work chat app Slack suffers services outage

Re: I was happy today...

try:

1. Click profile icon

2. move mouse to "pause notifications"

3. Choose the duration

4. Profit from the peace

Samsung asks New Jersey court to sink class action suit about Galaxy S7 waterproofing woes

dunking in the sea versus dropping in the bog?

one has a hard bottom, and that ding likely caused more of a problem that water naturally exploited.

hard surfaces have been known to crack screens (just sayin'). So my money would be on Samsung because if they can demonstrate 30 minutes and the surprising effect a hard surface has on a phone, then they would be let off as they were not saying "please drop this in a toilet" were they?

Need a new computer for homeschooling? You can do worse than a sub-£30 2007 MacBook off eBay

Old Dells are fine

I've got an old Dell D820 (yep, 2008-ish), and upgraded from XP => Windows 7 => Windows 10 Pro. I replaced my wife's laptop with an SSD as 40+ chrome tabs were a problem, and I got her old HDD, and the D820 is reasonably usable even with only 4 GB of ram (it doesn't support more).

I'm not trying to lose it as it has a 1440x1200 screen, which is bigger than many new laptops, so meh. keeping it as it works quite well, and handily handles a 1TB HDD. Works for me

Boffins get routers spilling secrets through their LEDs

unfortunately for you, chocolate teapots do work, though a one-time use.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-29126161

and to purchase ... http://www.schokolat.co.uk/chocolate-teapot/

McDonald's India's delivery app was a golden honeypot

Quite a few things are bad here

1. user profile without authentication

2. data served over http, not SSL

3. complete address information is not needed to process an order. the only part needed is the house number and the numbers from the postcode. that's what actually gets matched. the rest is fluff to make the user know it's their address.

4. All that and a global company has not been responsive on security issues.

But seriously, a delivery service? when I've (really rarely) had stuff from the "yellow crayon arches", I see that nuggets are lethally hot, but everything else is lukewarm. delivery will only help the lukewarm get even more so...

My headset is reading my mind and talking behind my back

Re: sunnies after dark ?

okay, cyclist here who's used yellow tinted sunglasses after dark. I know the physics mean less light, but having used them, they're seriously effective in the (almost) dark of cities, and very good when it comes to arc welders headlights, and being able to see. everything appears clearer even though the total energy of photons is less

might look a bit odd, but they do work

Dell tempts hordes with MASSIVE DISCOUNTS on PCs

Re: Used to be great quality, now "meh"

Not everything is bad. laptop here now on year 8, coming up to year 9. okay, so the battery is dead (any battery would be), but it was coaxed into running windows 10 up from XP -> 7 -> 10 which for hardware that old is pretty good

Apple and Android wearables: What iceberg? It’s full steam ahead!

Re: An analogy

hear hear on the the Casio watches.

Own a g-shock, and over 10 years on, same battery, and whatever it hits comes worse off (including the odd stone wall just to prove how tough it is). Only had to replace a plastic part because they broke - £12 including shipping. Not bad in my opinion.

Only considering a replacement given that the other plastic parts are starting to deteriorate and they make an all-metal watch now..

TLS proxies: Insecure by design, say boffins

Some proxies are very useful

I don't work for Charles Proxy, but it's very useful as a local proxy. I'd wish they'd tested this as I'd be curious to know their opinion about this

Spanish launch heroic bid to seize Brit polar vessel

Re: Offended by Blas de Lezo...

They've taken that too :-(

edit: it's not in the latest list. links and all that jazz. not that I work in IT for a living (whoops)

'Right to be forgotten' applies WORLDWIDE, thunders Parisian court

rewriting history

I have an issue with removing accurate and lawful information. Inaccurate information can be defamatory/libel (whichever the correct one is).

Yes, people have a right to a private life, but if the information in the public domain is not defamatory, then having it in the public domain can be a good thing for future historians. We as humans have a tendency to forget, but if we always 'forgot' something 'conveniently', then we might allow people to 'forget' certain acts of history that need to be remembered. It's a potentially slippery slope.

And, yes, I know the argument about 'nothing to hide' I'm not talking about that. I'm being very specific about something that got into a newspaper for a (hopefully) good, accurate and correct reason - gossip magazines don't count here (usually)

UK safety app keeping lorries on the right side of cyclists

Re: Abolish the Left Hand Access Lane

Or, do what some countries do and simply install lights for cyclists, but that's costly.

Yes, cyclists can be incredibly stupid and crawl up the LHS of a big vehicle. Swift movements when you know it's safe is better than being unsure and chancing it. That's where common sense should prevail to be careful and leave room for manoeuver.

I agree cycling can be faster, make you more fit, but sensible judgement is needed. As others have stated, sometimes it's safer to move up the right hand side, especially if a left-turn signal is indicated, but I guess I'm preaching to some form of choir given the number of comments I can see (85 before posting)

Note: I also rollerblade on the road and am continually educating cyclists I meet (in person) to not hang completely left as it makes the lane look wide open. Sitting more prominently in a lane and forcing cars to overtake (assuming you're doing a reasonable speed for the road) is much safer, and what's taught to motorcycles who are also be affected by this left hand turning business.

Netflix goes TITSUP worldwide (Total Inability To Support Usual Programming)

new serviec from netflix?

"The steaming service took a dive"

Excellent. now where do I get unlimited steaming from. I've got a few shirts that needs steam ironing ;-)

Spent the weekend watching Game of Thrones? You're a FAT LONELY SADDO

Re: Drepressing?

"Did they study people who just watch broadcast TV all weekend as well?

I think if I was stuck on that dead medium alone every evening, never mind a whole weekend, I'd be hanging from the ceiling by a rope after hour 3."

Um. based on your own hypothesis, not many of those people would be around. Thus no one to study.

Right, degree please! Boffin because, well, umm.. perhaps not...

Brits need chutzpah to copy Israeli cyberspies' tech creche – ex-spooks

non-stick frying pans from the space race?

um. no.

Teflon was a commercial invention* that nearly flopped as a commercial product because it was marketed as a 'no-oil' product. It was remarketed as 'non-stick' and then took off.

*even 'commercial invention' is a misnomer. It was found when two scientists who were trying to work out an alternative to CFC's for a refrigerant realised a gas canister filled with tetrafluoroethene had no gas in it, but had the right weight for it to be full. They then sawed the canister open, and found teflon at the bottom as a white 'plastic'. For reference, a corroded valve provided enough iron (or nickel, I forget that detail) to catalyse the reaction to PTFE (PolyTetraFluoroEthene).

Boffin icon because, well I've researched this quite a bit

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Chickpea stew à la Bureau des Projets Spéciaux

Re: It's a Crock (Pot)

agreed. my thoughts exactly. was just trying to work out the inevitable 'how long' question, but hey, where's the fun in that?

flame, because it depends on how much chilli one inflicts on oneself

Microsoft wants LAMP for wireless mobe charger

Re: Fantastic

Here's the thing. If it's intended for complete 'fast' charging of a phone, forget it. However, if, like some of the Casio g-shock watches it's intended to trickle charge throughout the day, then it sounds like a much better proposition.

the vast majority of us will work in some level of light (unless we're blind cavers, which I suspect is a rather small minority of the caving population), so having it charge while the phone is in light for 12 hours a day could mean that your phone would reasonably last the whole day and well into the night as it's being topped up, or simply using the solar energy for ticking over. That, in my opinion is a much better use case for it. Plus in an office environment the UV from a fluorescent light could help so long as actual glass is not used (quartz allows UV to pass through, but Silicon dioxide absorbs it)

On the G-shock front, had mine for over 10 years, always has a full battery, the battery has not needed changing, and it's always accurate on time. Yes, it has hands to move as well as a digital section, so it's not doing 'nothing' or having an e-ink display to sip power

Future imperfect: A UK broadband retrospective

Re: Hmmm the Alcatel 'Snotblob'.

I remember the stingray much better than some it seems. It sucked if you had it plugged into one computer that someone used and then used Windows sharing to share it with the house. The initial computer got 90% priority on the line, and, at 512k that wasn't very good.

Take an old PC, install Mandrake and configure *that* to act as a squid proxy server (windows updates included) as well as not be one that anyone uses, and the internet connection ran fine thank you. I left the it running for the best part of two years, with only the internet connection password needing changed once. It actually ran very nicely under Mandrake, once installed (which was a massive pain)

Careful - your helmet might get squashed by a Volvo

Ok. interesting, but...

So, all cyclists now need to purchase new helmets* and need to have an always on data connection...

What happens when a data connection is lost by the cyclist/driver? Do we now have to try to pair via bluetooth to see if each and every passing car will be problematic?**

Nice idea, but I think that the implementation sucks as we'd be forever using the battery life of a smart phone, which when using GPS and constantly using some other radio signal (or searching for wifi), drains a battery fast. Not a good idea when you're a vulnerable road user. Good lights (cyclists and car drivers) and retesting of car drivers every 4 years might be a better proposition, and good to build yet another section of the economy. I know a few people who drive cars that would never cycle because they perceive it as too dangerous to the cyclist and also afraid of cyclists who jump lights***

Yes, I am a cyclist, and I drive, but not as often as I cycle

* Actually you should do so every 3 years no matter what hasn't happened as ozone attacks the polystyrene

** also not every cyclist uses a 'smart' phone. I know a few people who use cheap phones because they've much better battery life. Yes, some of those are very geeky people.

***where's the skill in that? balancing on your bike at the lights is much harder, and safer than jumping out in front of the next mercedes/BMW that you didn't see...

Uber surge pricing kicks in during Sydney siege

Re: Erm...

pics or it didn't happen ;-)

Orion hacker sends stowaway into SPAAAAACE

Re: Why the fuck ...

how about this (guesswork):

The porpose of the trip was to test radiation hardening of systems as well, so LEV on a chip produces small channels that cosmic radiation could distort.

The second chip had data flashed onto it, so checking if radiation damaged is a quick way of checking that the radiation shielding worked (or not), and if the circuitry had radiation induced shorts/data failure.

This would be why the chips were sent into space in my opinion

IBM Research wants laptop batteries to retire and slum it

I presume they check them

mine tend to be fairly worn out before I send them off to the recycling heaven. not sure they'd provide much in the way of power at that point

NASA 'nauts have a go on Star Trek replicator IN SPAAAAACE (sort of)

Re: Magnetic wall

flaw: not all metals are magnetic.

titanium, aluminium, magnesium, gold (for electronics), etc.

A better option would simply be a 'fume hood' or negative pressure enviroment where all the air moves to the back of a system and is cleaned using a filter, as you mention

We're not, er, 'cut-throat' capitalists – VC formerly known as ISIS

ISIL, or IS, or ISIS. These guys need to work on their branding. It's getting confusing for all of us, and they effected the murder of a dog in downton abbey (so I'm told), so really cruel people!

My HOUSE used to be a PUB: How to save the UK high street

Re: A missed opportunity

hear hear. collect plus has been very handy as well. Not sure about International delivery though having just checked their site.

on the plus side, their site does load very quickly

BEHOLD Apple's BENEVOLENCE! iMessage txt BLACK HOLE finally fixed

hang on

so a former user of apple has to tell apple they went elsewhere, and cupertino can keep stats of this? can you imagine coming back and they tell you that they give you a discount (ha ha) because you're a long lost soul?

Since when is this a good use of personal data? And since when did this become acceptable.

Apple got more creepy when they automatically sent an email to a long-dead email address* when I had to buy something in store based on recognising a credit card number and I'd last bought something off them over 5 years ago. Clever, yes. creepy? Yes as well

* the email address was on the receipt.

Can you really run your business on a smartphone?

Re: @Wolfetone - Speaking as a Linux user

k9 perhaps? Works well for me

Microsoft: How to run Internet Explorer 11 on ANDROID, iOS, OS X

Re: IE5?

Not 4.7 - you might be thinking of Netscape communicator. It was that pain called IE 5.5. It didn't render anything like the windows version - partly down to System 9's controls (buttons, forms, etc) being different than windows, and partly who knows what.

I'm very glad that one never flew much further from the cuckoo's nest

LastPass releases Open Source command line client

so,the millions of scripts that die and fall over when lastpass servers conk out

and you've just changed the password for all those scripts to pick up...

this could be fun

PEAK APPLE: iOS 8 is least popular Cupertino mobile OS in all of HUMAN HISTORY

Re: from stats, it's actually quite nippy

All right, for those who actually care, here's a rough overview of who *never* fully completed an interaction (requiring 2x automatic interaction with a server). These are from September. Note, you can't get a device type from the information we have (annoying by Apple). As it's anonymised data, should be fine.

iOS 5: 4.5%

iOS 6.0.x: ~6%

iOS 6.1.x: 8-10% (yep, got worse)

iOS 7.0.x: 10-11%

iOS 7.1.x: 9%

iOS 8.0.x: 3% <-- finally got better

Sample sizes run in the millions over a the last two weeks in September those wanting to try to nitpick.

Specifically this is measured over users of Safari

from stats, it's actually quite nippy

Internal stats that I can't release show iOS 8 being a device that's finally quite good at processing the web. beforehand, I was lumping it as about as fast as Windows Vista running IE7 or 9 -- and that's not good, not at all.

While I prefer android, I think iOS 8 (performance-wise) is a better operating system, so people should be upgrading.

Auntie hires API firm to manage new online BBC Store

finally. a nice place where, if executed well, the store could mean the BBC makes money. Perhaps reduces the license fee?

Okay, that last part might be wishful thinking

Sony Xperia Z2: 4K vid, great audio, waterproof ... Oh, and you can make a phone call

I've seen a the compact with a tiny bit of sand in the pocket. scratches really easily. not exactly what you want after going to the beach with your phone...

that's the reason I'm considering the HTC One (M8)

EE dismisses DATA-BURNING glitch with Orange Mail app

and all this is why...

my next phone is going to be unlocked, and stock. Then I only have to worry about the firmware the manufacturer adds.

The discussion of which phone is best is another long one, and it's going to take me time to find. Any suggestions? Not the New Z1 mini because someone I know has it, and it scratches a tad fast with sand (front and back) when on holiday.

Sorry to derail the discussion, but suggestions?

- MicroSD is a must,

- 4G not worried about

- removable battery not worried about as current removable batter is original to an HTC and over 4 years old, with enough to eke into the second day if needed

Driver drama delays deep desert XP upgrade

I reiterate the point of Belarc advisor

works really quite well. From their own site and personal tests, the below is accurate, and insanely useful. If anyone else is likely to be in a pinch, get that information in advance.

No, I don't work for them. Just been very happy with it in many cases, and so happy to recommend it

from: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, network inventory, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, security benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

Researcher lights fire under Tesla security

and botnet herders via a Tesla?

surely methinks the date should be checked

Dell tells customers: 'Opt out' if you don't want a channel service

hmm. dell. The company who I tell every three months that I'm not planning on buying from them as I don't have the authority (and we don't need to buy new computers at the moment). However, they call me back with a new account manager like clockwork.

You'd think that someone would have noted it down, and re-read it realising it's a broken record.

As an aside, I like dell, and have one at home that's lasted for 6+ years and I hope will continue to last as the hardware is good (not a cheap laptop at the time). just please, sort out your agents. Please, and don't sell my data onwards.

Sick of walking into things while gawping at your iPhone? Apple has a patent app. for that

peripheral vision

use it (or lose it -- potentially)

'nuff said

Microsoft issues less-than-helpful tips to XP holdouts

I'm with @tony here. I've an old Dell D820, and ubuntu's install of '12.10' and '13.04' was quite a performance drag. Xubuntu which I've now got installed works fine, and is very quick especially given it's installed in the slow part of the hard drive.

Next, I'll see how the Windows 7 upgrade works (or not). It's worth a try for some gaming, and some things that just are harder to get to work under Linux (age of empires 1, for example). If I look around, I've even got Chip's Challenge kicking about (Win 3.11).

Aah, nostalgia.