Posts by Joe Drunk

These Rapoo webcams won't blow your mind, but they also won't break the bank

Re: Really?

Still don't get Millenials' obsession with video calls.

At the beginning of lockdown we jumped aboard the Zoom bandwagon but it was too much of a hassle with those with bad WIFI/limited tech skills.

I'm old fashioned. A dial-up conference bridge that we use for our weekly staff meetings, no tech knowledge or even PC needed, just a pad and pen. Don't need to see if you forgot to wear pants, hair is a mess, unshaven etc. Quick and painless, no software updates/guiding anyone through settings, why is my mic/camera not working, no, just no.

I haven't done a video call in months, haven't missed it and neither do my colleagues.

Canon makes 'all-in-one' printers that refuse to scan when out of ink, lawsuit claims

Re: Standard Industry Malpractice?

I too have an Epson AIO inkjet that won't print or send faxes if ink is low. Remarkably I am still able to scan so I can use it with a USB Faxmodem to send the occasional fax. I have a separate laser printer for printing (no, I won't mention brand names I'm not here to help $BLOATEDCORP$ make more money).

I won't buy another AIO anything from any manufacturer ever again.

Tech widens the educational divide. And I should know – I'm a teacher in a pandemic

Faulty parents

Kids who don't complete Home Learning Packs lack a role model at home that ensures these assignments get done. I did a stint upgrading teachers' desktop PCs at a high school a few years back before the pandemic. The students who had the most difficulty behavior wise and grade wise also had parents who wouldn't reply to emails or letters sent home requesting to meet with them. It's almost as if once they breed them they expect the school to raise their kids for them. Bad home life equals bad school life.

Age discrimination case against IBM leaks emails, docs via bad redaction

IBM - the Grand Masters of Bullshit Bingo

I am in awe after reading all the communique from their senior management.

London Greenwich station: A reminder of former glories. Like Windows XP

Re: How much longer will we have to endure this ?

You must be new to El Reg.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/bork/

Papa don't breach: UK data watchdog fines that other pizza place £10,000 over unsolicited marketing blitz

Re: Our intention was to reach only those potentially interested in our offers

If you want real pizza you don't get it from a chain restaurant, you get it at an independently owned family run place. You can even watch as they toss it in the air and spin the pizza dough into shape, add your toppings and put it in the oven. Chain places are the equivalent of frozen pizza with some added toppings.

Microsoft: Behold, at some later date, the next generation of Windows

Re: Most of my time is spent writing.

You guys are lucky. Most of my spare time is spent fixing things around the house!

Microsoft demotes Calibri from default typeface gig, starts fling with five other fonts

Re: Obviously

I've always preferred Tahoma.

Microsoft announces a new Office for offline fans, slashes support, hikes the price

Still on Office 2010

On a Windows 7 box. Have had no problems opening Word files with crazy macros or Excel spreadsheets with VB macros that are sent to me produced with O365/2019. Office 2010 opens much faster than its cloudy counterparts. Not a one drive user but until Mickeysoft makes upcoming versions of online docs incompatible with legacy versions I'm sticking with my 2010 offline.

Salesforce: Forget the ping-pong and snacks, the 9-to-5 working day is just so 2019, it's over and done with

Re: WFHSS

It can be just as stressful as coming to the office, you have to learn to adapt. As someone with a 90 minute commute each way WFH is a god send. No more leaving to work when it's dark outside and arriving home when it's dark outside. As others have stated, I do other things like laundry etc. but now I can wake up a little later and at the end of the day the day I logout and am already home. My work day has been reduced significantly with only the occasional after hours work. More me time equals more happiness. Truthfully the only time I am ever bothered after hours are by less technical colleagues having problems since our firm has greatly reduced IT support to the point where our team relies on each other rather than using the support portal.

As a consultant I don't miss the interaction in any way, we have email, phone and zoom.

Microsoft SolarWinds analysis: Attackers hid inside Windows systems by wearing the skins of legit processes

Re: What?

Having your PC behave as you wish is something Mickeysoft is going through great lengths to ensure is no longer possible with each iteration of its OS.

You can disable updates but they will be re-enabled against your will. This is due to the Windows Update Medic Service that monitors the status of Windows Update and will enable it if disabled. The Update Medic Service can't be disabled by ordinary means.

I had to use a third party tool (Windows Update Blocker) to disable Medic Service and now I am in control of updates, not Mickeysoft. No more "My PC was working fine until an update and now XXX doesn't work anymore" as one of the most common gripes on any Windows 10 support forum.

Loser Trump is no longer useful to Twitter, entire account deleted over fears he'll whip up more mayhem

Re: An elephant in the room

But what of Donald J Trump? There will be several volumes that will fill up shelves of the Library of Congress.

Forget volumes in a library - I can't wait for the mini-series to come out on a streaming platform, I will gladly subscribe just to watch it!

I wonder which actor they'll get to play Trump?

P.S. I live here in the US and I'm not concerned with President Stump pushing any button. He has painted himself into a corner, all alone with no allies save his rabid hate mongering supporters. He is a lame duck whose clock is ticking (12 days left).

Why make games for Linux if they don't sell? Because the nerds are just grateful to get something that works

I'm flabbergasted!

I've read about this elusive creature - the Linux Gamer but have always dismissed it as myth. I still can't believe it. It's not April 1st. Bah, I need proof otherwise it's just more Big Foot / Loch Ness Monster tall tales.

'Best tech employer of the year' threatened trainee with £15k penalty fee for quitting to look after his sick mum

"top business and technology professionals"

"Cheapest business and technology disposable employees" FTFY.

It's been a while but is 3 months without pay and then a 2 year indentured servitude the new standard for those entering IT? That would pushed me off to a different field!

Ad blocking made Google throw its toys out of the pram – and now even more control is being taken from us

This

I'm not stealing anything by blocking ads. All ads are lies. All advertisers will use any trick or blatantly lie to get you to part with your money. You simply can't trust any ad. PERIOD.

I block all ads and unwanted scripts. I say it with pride.

Rogue ex-Cisco employee who crippled WebEx conferences and cost Cisco millions gets two years in US prison

I wouldn't trust Cisco to secure my cookie jar

How does an ex-employee still have log-in access after 5 months?

I hope those of you still using Cisco gear for your secure infrastructure will re-evaluate and consider other vendors.

Remember Ask Jeeves? It's still alive, kinda, and Google seems keen to show it the door once and for all

Yeah I remember Ask Jeeves

That would be that toolbar/browser homepage hijacker that came bundled with the majority of free/opens source software and would get surreptitiously installed if you clicked too rapidly on various 'I Agree' dialogs while installing.

Good riddance to bad garbage.

HP CEO talks up HP-ink-only print hardware and higher upfront costs for machines that use other cartridges

Hey corporate morons

Whenever I purchase any product and/or service it's done entirely for my benefit and my benefit only, not yours! I didn't purchase this printer so I can be a loyal customer of some faceless, soul-less corporation. I could care less if your corporation goes bankrupt as a result of my using third party consumables and the subsequent circumvention of any technology you have in place that would prevent me from doing so!

It somehow gives me a little pleasure to give the middle finger to the robot-like C-suites who follow the same playbook (Do everything as cheaply as possible and fleece your customers as much as possible).

I do hope those of you with wireless printers on your LAN have them configured with static IPs and the gateway set to 0.0.0.0.

New lawsuit: Why do Android phones mysteriously exchange 260MB a month with Google via cellular data when they're not even in use?

Disable background data

I noticed this too and was very annoyed that there was no way to prevent it. Worse still was Google's indifference to users' complaint on various forums.

This probably depends on your model handset but on all my Galaxy phones if you go to Data Usage it will show you all apps that use data sorted by usage. If you click on any app it will have a box labeled "Restrict Background Data". I unticked EVERYTHING except the Transparent Clock & Weather App which uses 205 kilobytes of data daily. All Google services gave a warning that they may stop functioning altogether but I ignored this since the only Google service I use occasionally is Play Store.

Works fine. Now the only time my mobile data is used is when I open an app that requires internet (I am now in control of my data usage, not Google). Two middle fingers to you Google.

We did NAT see that coming: How malicious JavaScript can open holes in your firewall for miscreants to slip through

Re: "visit a website containing malicious JavaScript"

I used to keep javascript disabled by default in Firefox. Unfortunately more and more websites either don't work properly or just give you a blank page (El Reg being the exception). Also WEBEX extensions refuse to work without javascript.

Alphabet thanks ads and AI for its $124m-a-day quarterly profit, and comes out swinging against antitrust action

It's Win-Win

I block ALL ads on all my devices.

Google still reports a 9.8 increase in ad revenue from last year.

As Amazon pulls union-buster job ads, workers describe a 'Mad Max' atmosphere – unsafe, bullying, abusive

Re: There's a simple solution

I know a few people who work at a local Walmart in non-management roles. It's a paradise compared to how Amazon treats their workers. I've heard places like UPS/FEDEX are similar in the constant stress of losing your job for no reason (I've known people who worked there as well).

Nobody's pointing a gun to your head and telling you to work at these shitholes. Given the skillset there are plenty of alternatives. There currently is an increased demand for sub-contractors/day laborers that pay competitive rates. You will work had, get your hands dirty but will be treated far better than any Megacorp and at the end of the day enjoy some well earned pints. I speak from personal experience.

Physical stress is much easier to overcome than emotional/mental stress. With physical stress you come home tired and sleep soundly whereas emotional/mental stress causes you to toss and turn all night.

'Get out of my office, you're being a pest!' Yes, son. Toymaker releases work-from-home-themed play sets

Have an upvote.

not just for drinking at lunch but the for absence of the 90 minute commute!

Dutch Gateway store was kept udder wraps for centuries until refit dug up computing history

Re: Relegated to the attic...

My Gateway MD2601u laptop from 2009 still chugs along, I mostly use it for testing OS installs.

Brave takes step closer to sensible business model by building subscription VPN into the iOS version of its browser

And there lies the problem with today's internet. Ad slingers assume absolutely NO responsibility for what service or merchandise they are serving. As long as they get paid, who cares. Your PC is infected, click here to clean it, hot chick wants to chat with u, bitcoin, cheap IPhones, etc.

Ad-slingers: You're ALL scammers. I block all of you, no exceptions. I don't care if you lose money. Waaa. Waaa. That's like the meth dealer telling me he has to keep doing what he does to stay in business.

You don't need Brave - Chromium based browser on desktop + Ublock origin (or Mozilla + UBlock origin) or Bromite on Android. Can't speak for IOS, don't on any kit.

The girl with the dragnet tattoo: How a TV news clip, Insta snaps, a glimpse of a tat and a T-shirt sold on Etsy led FBI to alleged cop car arsonist

Glad one less psycopath is off the streets

Random acts of violence and arson? Hopefully she gets the help and meds she needs. She may not serve the full sentence but I hope there will be court ordered anger management and regular psychological evaluations. Torching police cars accomplishes nothing - they are fully insured and will be replaced at taxpayer's expense.

With citizens happy-snapping everything that moves, the case for state surveillance seems pretty thin.

That's exactly what I was thinking. A cursory search on on Google and social media by a teenager would've yielded the same results. Maybe the FBI had their kids do some of the research.

Living up to its 'un-carrier' slogan, T-Mobile US stops carrying incoming calls, data in nationwide outage

"They were making some changes to their network configurations today. Unfortunately, it went badly. The result has been for around the last six hours a series of cascading failures for their users, impacting both their voice and data networks."

Ouch. That last paragraph just brought some bad flashbacks to my days of working in a data center when changes would go horribly wrong and the subsequent life-draining marathon of hours required to restore services. We made all changes on the weekends however to minimize business impact so I would like to know why they would do it on a Monday morning.

No more installing Microsoft's Chromium-centered Edge by hand: Windows 10 will do it for you automatically

I still have the non-chrome Edge on my 1903 build of Windows 10

I used it once. To download Waterfox and Cent Browsers. Hasn't been used since.

Microsoft doc formats are the bane of office suites on Linux, SoftMaker's Office 2021 beta may have a solution

But moving on, we've had several clients where we've tried to help them save money by using LibreOffice. The best I can say is that some of them 'put up with it'. Every single end user has complained about documents either not formatting correctly, or when they send them to MS Office-using recipients, that they can't open documents properly (if at all). Our clients have tried, and are happy to pay a sub to Microsoft rather than struggle with the likes of LibreOffice.

Unfortunately that pretty much describes my experience with directing folks to the free-office route. First is the learning curve since most were schooled on MS Office when they were introduced to personal computers. The largest obstacle is always the interchanging of documents with MS Office users. Eventually they end up paying the Redmond tax

NUC NUC. Who's there? It's Intel, with a pint-sized 8-core Xeon workstation

Unfortunately Kodi doesn't support DLNA particularly well.

Works fine here on Kodi 18.3 - I can watch videos and stream music from my DLNA server just as easily as from local storage. I can certainly agree with you on one thing - setting up Kodi is a PITA especially for DLNA, Netflix plugins etc. Takes a LOT of tinkering. I make frequent backups. Yes, the Kodi forums can be a free for all, I mostly search engine first before I hit their forums.

One of my TVs has DLNA and both of my Samsung Bluray boxes have it. The TV I have my HTPC connected to is dumb so the easiest way to add DLNA was an HTPC with Win 10.

I prefer Miracast because it mirrors the screen and there are no additional apps to install. People want to show me videos or pics they took on their Android phone when they came over before Covid-19. The easiest way to put it on the big screen was Miracast, no additional anything to install or new app for them to figure how to use/cast.

Yup - Have Kodi 18.3 on Win 10 and also had it on Lubuntu. Wouldn't be an HTPC without Kodi. I couldn't find Miracast support in Linux by searching the web - I was hoping some die-hard penguinistas knew something search engines didn't.

Awesome! Been looking to replace my HTPC with something very small form factor. I would also like to ditch Windows 10 because it is a hog - the only reason it exists on my HTPC is because of the built-in DLNA/Miracast support (must have features for me). Are there any Linux distros that support both of these?

Now we know what the P really stands for in PwC: X-rated ads plastered over derelict corner of accountants' website

El Reg most likely don't serve the ads themselves but, as is the case with practically every website that serves ads, relies on a third party and therefore have little to no control over what ads are shown on this site.

As I block all content I deem of no use to me I never saw the £89 iPhones or any other exciting offers from anywhere else on the internet.

Quibi, JetBlue, Wish, others accused of leaking millions of email addresses to ad orgs via HTTP referer headers

I feel so guilty for blocking all ads

/s

Wakey-wakey! A quarter of IT pros only get 3-4 hours' kip – and you won't believe what's being touted as the 'solution'

Re: I had a good long sleep last night

That happened to me as well in my Data Center days. A torrent of emails was fired to all related management, team members, stakeholders etc. to ensure his incompetence was brought front and center. The goal was to get him fired but he ended up being transferred to a different location and I never heard from him again so almost as good. I have gotten a few others lower managers fired for their posturing at different gigs over the years. No remorse. Working in IT is already hell and anyone who attempts to fan the flames for their own personal benefit will have a target painted on their backs.

FTP is crusty and mostly dead, right? AWS just started supporting it anyway

Re: Update it not kill it

I have done SFTP (FTPS' cousin) from my desktop PC home internet to my Phone's 4G connection so I am more than familiar with port forwarding/NAT. My original point was for FTP/FTPS 2.0 which doesn't require static NAT/port forwarding and plays nicely with firewalls. I like FTP's simplicity of setup - username/password, directories, rwdx access. When servicing computers for friends and family it's FTP or removable media for transferring data from my laptop to theirs. I don't have to install anything on their computers the server/client both run from a flash drive I have with all kinds of portable apps

Update it not kill it

Would be nice if FTP would be updated to support modern enterprise file transfer requirements yet still easy enough to setup on any TCP/IP enabled device. I use FTP across my LAN to transfer files between all my Linux, Android and Windows devices. A breeze to setup and I can turn the servers off an on easily.

Vivaldi browser to perform a symphony of ad and tracker blocking with version 3.0

Re: Clear Data on Exit?

I have yet to find an Android Chromium-based browser that clears browsing data on exit - they all require manually clearly from privacy options or incognito mode. The closest I could find was a chrome flag #clear-older-browsing-data which will clear all browsing data older than 30 days.

Anyway if any of you Regtards are really interested in a good Chromium browser on Android with good ad blocking I suggest giving Bromite a test drive. I've compared it with Brave and Kiwi and found it to block practically every ad even in Youtube videos. Maybe that's why it's not available in Google Play store.

https://www.bromite.org/

Animal crossing? Nah! Farmyard frolics, courtesy of Novell and pals

I too was the class genius in my freshman year of uni. There was an intro to computers class (I don't remember the exact title) that was a requirement for all students regardless of major. The class taught basic MS-DOS 4, Word processing (Wordperfect 5.1), Spreadsheet (Lotus 123 v2) and other basics. None of the PCs were networked. Most in my class were non-Comp Sci majors so were clueless but I tutored as many as I could so they could get a passing grade.

Beer icon because I got invited to a lot of frat parties as thanks!

Firefox to burn FTP out of its browser, starting slowly in version 77 due in April

"FTP is an insecure protocol..."

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/

What's inside a tech freelancer's backpack? That's right, EVERYTHING

Re: "my backpack can weigh between 8 and 14kg"

Not sure why Dr_N got downvoted - I wholeheartedly agree. There's no reason why you should have to lug around 14kg worth of equipment and supplies while your colleagues packs only weigh 3kg. Mayhaps it's because they know you are the mule that supplies the whole team so they don't need to burden themselves. This happened to me at first, then I got tired of having to walk around having to ask for everything back, someone I loaned my laptop charger left early and won't be back in the office till next week, resulting in my having to buy another charger.

No.

My pack weighs in at 5kg. Tops. We all make a decent salary. If you need something there are plenty of office supply shops. "Can I borrow your-" "No. I don't loan things out" Eventually they will get the message and they will stop asking you. They will either A) Learn to come prepared with the supplies they need to do their work or more likely B) Find someone else to grub from.

Your back will thank you as will your sanity since you no longer have to track who you loaned out what to.

Have an upvote. Serial leechers can sod off.

Sadly, the web has brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'nothing is true; everything is permitted'

Nothing has changed other than your (mis)perception of the world we live in

Scams have been around long before the internet - they are merely now more prolific. A certain degree of cynicism and common sense are required to prevent yourself from being victimized. All scammers are sociopaths and look for any weakness they can exploit such as the feeling of guilt the author mentioned.

I can honestly say I wouldn't have any such feelings for someone whom not only have I never met but contacts me out of the blue to ask for money. What am I, a bank? You have no other relatives or close friends (big red flag) that can help you? Yes I can help you, but I'm not going to. The internet is a big place full of bleeding hearts, you'll find someone else to scam, move along.

Same for someone phoning me who I haven't seen in 20 years asking me for money. So in all that time you never thought to get in touch other than now to ask me for money? Clearly we're NOT friends therefore the answer is no.

This world is not for those fond of rose-colored glasses. The proper term is enhanced awareness, not paranoia.

Vodafone: Yes, we slurp data on customers' network setups, but we do it for their own good

Not surprised, probably all ISPs do this, even in the US if you use their router

As other commenters have noted the solution is to use your own router. My previous ISP provided a combo modem- WIFI router they managed. I connected my router to theirs, thus making my LAN invisible to them.

I personally know more people using their ISP supplied router than one they purchased. Most people aren't boffins and are clueless as to how a router or any of their internet do-hickeys work. They will call their ISP for any problem with their LAN (Ipad can't connect, wireless printer won't print, etc.). I can see how the ISP gathering information on their LAN would be useful in troubleshooting.

Sound off - how many people do you personally know that have purchased their own router versus those using the one provided by their ISP? For me about 80% fall in the latter category.

It's a Bing thing: Microsoft drops plans to shove unloved search engine down throats of unsuspecting enterprises

Still on Office 2010

And haven't seen any compelling reason to "upgrade". I am still able to open Word documents and Excel spreadsheets chock full of crazy macros created with Office 2013/2019 sent to me. What am I missing?

Yahoo! hack! payout! nearly! approved! and! the! question! is! how! to! spend! 60! cents!?

My Yahoo account still works although seldom used. Too bad I don't have credit monitoring, I really could have used that 60 cents to buy a packet of crisps to go with my pint.

Brave, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla gather together to talk web privacy... and why we all shouldn't get too much of it

There's only one entity that knows what's best for me. Me, Myself, and I Inc. As a corporation, all initiatives are implemented in a "What's best for my corporation" paradigm. Ads, trackers and other content I deem of no benefit to MMI [Me, Myself, and I Inc.] are filtered or removed. Once your traffic enters my LAN it is entirely under MMI's jurisdiction and the only terms that apply are MMI's which clearly state it will be filtered in accordance with MMI's best practices.

If your website should fail and fallover due to my content filtering MMI will remain indifferent and attribute it to a failure of your business model. News will still happen, it will merely be disseminated by another source.

I block all content I deem non-beneficial. It's just my corporate policy.

The Foot of Cupid emits final burst of flatulence in honour of fallen Python Terry Jones

R.I.P., Nudge Nudge

Raise several pints to you today and your fellow Pythonites for introducing this left-pondian to British comedy at a very young age.

Looking for a great value broadband deal? War-torn Syria will do you proud

You get what you pay for

As a left-pondian it's true that I do pay $60/month for 100Mb/s internet. I've never had any issues, I get a constant speed peak/off peak and have had only one outage in 5 years. Unfortunately if I move I will be stuck with whatever provider is servicing the area and from what I've heard other providers (one affectionately known as ComCrap) doesn't provide as good service. If I want good internet I'm stuck here.

WebAssembly: Key to a high-performance web, or ideal for malware? Reg speaks to co-designer Andreas Rossberg

WaSm = Unblockable auto-play video ads

See title

Privacy activists beg Google to ban un-removable bloatware from Android

Re: "most commonly found on cheap handsets"

True that Samsungs come with their own bloatware that your average user can't remove/disable. I have had no problems rooting all my Samsung handsets and have removed the excess baggage. Pretty much the main reason I still buy Samsung as other manufacturers make it difficult/impossible to root their android phones.

P.S. I have also tried many custom roms as a result - there was always some issues/quirks that would inevitably lead me to revert back to the stock rom.