* Posts by joeW

627 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Mar 2012

Page:

Brave's homegrown search claims to protect your privacy but there's a long way to go if it's to challenge the big G

joeW

Re: Change is inevitable

AltaVista was a (rather good) legit search engine. The warez/crackz/hacking search engine you're thinking of was the cheekily named AstaLaVista.

Bad apples: US customs seize OnePlus earbuds thinking they're knock-off AirPods

joeW

Re: How can we be sure

Jesus monkeyballs, when did that happen?!

Give us a reason... not to buy a new handset? Samsung back-ports Galaxy S20 photo features to Galaxy 10 range

joeW

Re: "the ability to create customer photo filters"

Look, it's just Muphrey's Law in action.

Mad dash for webcams with surge in videoconferencing has turned out rather nicely for Logitech

joeW

If anything I'd say tablets have been good for their keyboard sales!

joeW

I just tried reassigning buttons on my G MX518*. The actions are labelled "Primary Click", "Middle Click" and "Secondary Click" and keep the labels after reassignment, so it seems they've fixed that.

*which I purchased recently to replace my aging 2004 model MX510. It's actually the third time I've replaced that old workhorse, the tenacious little bastard keeps outliving its replacements. When I heard Logitech had reissued the classic MX series mouse shape with modern sensors I decided I had to try it out.

Reg fashion special: Top designer says 'video chat accessories' are in for spring!

joeW

Re: Fashion is easy!

Ah, the classic Loituma rendition. Or as I like to call it, the start of the deep and twisted rabbit-hole that led me to Koripklaani...

joeW

Re: Fashion is easy!

Korpiklaani's version of Ievan Polka I hope?

joeW

Re: What would we do without fashion?

Come back, Telephone Sanitisers - all is forgiven.

From Amanda Holden to petrol-filled water guns: It has been a weird week for 5G

joeW

"I'VE DONE RESEARCH"

"OK, can you send me a copy of your collated findings, with all appropriate citations and references included? Because if you haven't done that, then what you're doing is 'reading', not 'researching'. Or more likely 'watching', but I'm feeling charitable today".

Ethernet standards group leaves its name in the dust as it details new 800Gbps spec

joeW

"having 25G in the name was too constraining for the scope of the consortium"

"...And also we don't want to get petrol-bombed by loonies"

RIP: Sinclair ZX Spectrum designer Rick Dickinson reaches STOP

joeW

Re: re Mahler's death march

I'm almost two years late with this (this article came up in the sidebar of a more recent one I was reading and I clicked into the comments out of habit), so I doubt you'll ever see this reply... but those appear to be Spectrum +2 (cassette drive) and +3 (disc drive) machines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum#ZX_Spectrum_+2

And you're right about them looking like Amstrads - these models were from after the Amstrad take-over of Sinclair.

Welcome to the telco, we've got fun and games: BT inks 5-year deal to outsource mainframe management to IBM

joeW

I spent a good deal of time trying to sing the second half of the headline to the tune of the first.

Poured your info out on a call to 118 118 Money? Bad luck. Credit provider 'fesses up that hacker nabbed customer service phone recordings

joeW

"118 118 Money said the database itself was not broken into"

So just the place where they dump the data files. Anyone want to put money on them deciding to use an S3 storage bucket?

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, health secretary Matt Hancock both test positive for COVID-19 coronavirus

joeW

I was thinking more of this headline from two weeks ago - "UK PM Johnson: Coronavirus will not stop me shaking hands"

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-handshake/uk-pm-johnson-coronavirus-will-not-stop-me-shaking-hands-idUSKBN20Q1IO

joeW

"Well, well, well... if it isn't the consequences of my own actions"

Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft speech-to-text AI systems can't understand black people as well as whites

joeW

Yes, proper words only. Such as "erm".

joeW

Based on my experience

I'm guessing that it would still do better with Black American english than with my Irish english.

PC owners borg into the most powerful computer the world has ever known – all in the search for coronavirus cure

joeW

Re: Very worthy

Done! Bringing a Ryzen 5 3600 with an RX-5700 to the table. Not the fastest thing out there but should crunch a few numbers.

joeW

Very worthy

I've installed this now.

Here's an idea, could we get an El Reg team going? Vulture Power!

Watching you, with a Vue to a Kill: Wikimedia developers dismiss React for JavaScript makeover despite complaints

joeW

Re: Front-end development is a complete mess

I must say that I've been enjoying the hell out of react since picking it up a few months ago. But yes, as with all things front-end these days, its the dependencies that are annoying. Every second result when I search for "How to [anything] with React" starts with "Well first you'll just need to 'npm install [package-library]', and then..."

HPE celebrated diversity on International Women's Day not with pictures of its own staff but stock images of models

joeW

Re: Probably some HR or marketing bod

Well yes, but that's just another hoop you have to jump through which using a stock image avoids.

joeW

Ah, the corporate PR drone championing of diversity as an abstract concept without giving any thought as to what it actually might mean.

An American company I worked for years ago used to send copies of their monthly corporate newsletter to our offices in Ireland. One issue was dedicated to patting themselves on the back for diversity, and included the memorable headline "[Corporation Name] is proud to announce that 40% of last year's new hires were Diverse!"

America: We'll send citizens cash checks amid coronavirus financial hardship. UK: We'll offer £330bn in biz loans

joeW

Re: Covfefe-19

But you can't sing that to the tune of Come On Eileen.

Looming ventilator shortage amid pandemic sparks rise of open-source DIY medical kit. Good thinking – but safe?

joeW

Bloody hell

"Meanwhile, technician Christian Fracassi reportedly helped make a 3D-printed valve that helped save at least 10 lives at a hospital in Italy, although he may now face legal action from the company whose $11,000 parts he copied."

If that legal action goes ahead, those responsible should be fired into the fucking sun.

US prez Donald Trump declares America closed to those flying in from Schengen zone over coronavirus woes

joeW

Re: Hmm

Most of Ireland is still in the "monolithic EU" so that doesn't seem to have been a factor in this decision.

You've duked it out with OS/2 – but how to deal with these troublesome users? Nukem

joeW

Re: Expensive

I gave it a replay last year - still immensely good fun after all these years. Although the less said about the eventual sequel the better.

BOFH: Here he comes, all wide-eyed with the boundless optimism of youth. He is me, 30 years ago... what to do?

joeW

Dammit BOFH....

I come here to laugh, not cry.

If you're writing code in Python, JavaScript, Java and PHP, relax. The hot trendy languages are still miles behind, this survey says

joeW

Re: Irony

I'm reminded of a famous StackOverflow answer to the question, "What's the difference between Java and Javascript?"

"One is essentially a toy, designed for writing small pieces of code, and traditionally used and abused by inexperienced programmers.

The other is a scripting language for web browsers."

Flat Earther and wannabe astronaut killed in homemade rocket

joeW

Re: How on earth can someone be so stupid to believe this BS?

And some individuals reach both, sometimes on the same day. Even the smartest among us will have a few intellectual blind spots.

Best buds? Apple must be fuming: Samsung's wireless earphones boast 11 hours of listening on a single charge

joeW

Re: Studio albums

Nine albums, one never-ending song...

B-but it doesn't get viruses! Not so, Apple fanbois: Mac malware is growing faster than nasties going for Windows

joeW

Re: Malware infections on PCs and Mac are so passé

Most people under 20 today have only ever known Facebook as the place where their mum posts embarrassing family photos, and their dad goes to yell at other dads about football and politics. No wonder they're looking elsewhere.

RIP FTP? File Transfer Protocol switched off by default in Chrome 80

joeW

Re: It's been way more than a decade...

I somehow doubt you're using Chrome for anything Jake, least of all as an FTP client ;)

Is Chrome really secretly stalking you across Google sites using per-install ID numbers? We reveal the truth

joeW

A man is not dead while his name is still spoken.

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

joeW

Re: "Around 0.5% of emails opened in the 'bird today, apparently"

Outlook default blocks it on senders from outside your organisation, Gmail's default seems to be to block all unless you allow.

I'm guessing that while almost all email clients have such a feature, Thunderbird users are more likely to understand the implications of allowing images - and therefore choose not to.

joeW

Re: "Around 0.5% of emails opened in the 'bird today, apparently"

From the last paragraph, it seems that figure is coming not from Mozilla but some "Email Analytics" outfit called Litmus. Their results include the footnote "Some email clients may be over or under represented due to image blocking" - given the techie nature of Thunderbird's user base, I would guess that 0.5% is a severe under-representation.

Step away from that Windows 7 machine, order UK cyber-cops: It's not safe for managing your cash digitally

joeW

Re: Windows 8(.1)

"upgrading"

Intel teases NUC-leheads with new desktop-class graphics systems and a fast i9 CPU

joeW

Re: Displacement??

I don't think anyone is linking displacement to performance, just giving relative sizes.

Rowhammer rides again as FPGA attack, RSA again reportedly up for sale, anti-theft kit to nuke laptops, etc

joeW

Seems to be poorly worded on El Reg's part. The command is run on unplugging the USB device - the solution in question uses a cheap magnetic break-away adapter ($7) to make sure that the USB key does get yoinked out by the cord should the worst happen.

SanDisk's iXpand Wireless Charger is the unholy lovechild of a Qi mat and a flash drive

joeW

Interesting little device

Regarding this part though:

> The SanDisk iXpand Wireless Charger allows you to set up password protections

What are we talking here, actual encryption of the data or just password protection?

My eyes thank you, Google: Android to get dark mode scheduling in future update

joeW

Re: "Dark Mode scheduling"

This dark mode: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/look-and-feel/darktheme

joeW

Good news

Will El Reg be following their lead and giving us a dark theme?

joeW

I think this a dark UI theme, not lessening the blue light.

Final update doled out to those who let Google sit on their face: Glass Explorer Edition cut off from the mothership

joeW

Re: El Reg feeding itself

Google themselves used the term "Glasshole" - see the last point on this list:

https://sites.google.com/site/glasscomms/glass-explorers

Samsung Galaxy S11 tipped to escalate the phone cam arms race with 108MP sensor

joeW

There's some with proper sliding optical zoom too - the trick is to turn it sideways inside the phone body and use a periscope-style reflector at the end.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/3/1/14755916/oppo-5x-zoom-camera-prototype-hands-on-mwc-2017

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/03/new-huawei-phone-has-a-5x-optical-zoom-thanks-to-a-periscope-lens/

joeW

Doogee Wowser: The S40's a terrible smartphone, but a passable projectile

joeW

We must...

Make sure all teachers are also equipped with ruggedised smartphone bricks - the only thing that can stop a bad kid with a Doogee is a good guy with a Doogee.

Internet Society says opportunity to sell .org to private equity biz for $1.14bn came out of the blue. Wow, really?

joeW

Re: Upvote but yes.

You're corrupt and immoral, but you've got a billion dollars.

Buy Amazon's tiny $99 keyboard so you can make terrible AI music for all your friends

joeW

Re: re: Looking at it the last 20 years of chart music was made on it.

Relevant SMBC -

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-05-22

Judge to interview Assange over claims Spanish security firm snooped on him during Ecuador embassy stint

joeW

Re: A Non - Lawyer Responds...

It seems embassies are not sovereign territory after all -

https://pathtoforeignservice.com/is-an-embassy-on-foreign-soil-the-sovereign-territory-of-the-host-country-or-the-embassys-country/

You're drinking morning coffee in 2019. These eggheads are in 2119 landing drones on their arms like robo-falconers

joeW

Re: Hmm...

And on each hand, a tiny hunter-killer drone.

Page: