Posts by Pat Att

Former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner passes, aged 83

Re: Do typographical 'letters' have carbon footprints?

I much prefer "dies". It's clearer, and doesn't treat me like I'm sone feeble minded person unable to process life events

HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls

Re: Farking bastards...

Can I ask, what is the favoured alternative these days? I may soon be replacing mine.

Realizing this is getting out of hand, Coq mulls new name for programming language

Just wait 'til they fork it...

Google employee helped UK government switch from disastrous COVID-19 strategy, according to Dominic Cummings

Re: Seems consistent with my timeline

Both small fruit, with pips and a stalk. Pretty similar really.

Bitcoin is ‘disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization’ says famed investor Charlie Munger

Re: Insert meme here

Gold is actually not that great a conductor. Yes, it's pretty good, but copper pisses all over it. Gold is used on connectors to stop them oxidising, so they remain able to be taken on and off without having to scrape through a whole load of rust (or verdigree) to get a connection.

Michael Collins, once the world's 'loneliest man,' is dead. If that name means little or nothing to you, read this

Thanks...

That was a great obituary.

Over a decade on, and millions in legal fees, Supreme Court rules for Google over Oracle in Java API legal war

Re: Unbelievable

What a Doubting Thomas he is.

Openreach engineers vote to strike amid changes to job grading structure

I'm staying neutral.

Missing GOV.UK web link potentially cost taxpayers £50m as civil servants are forced to shuffle paper forms

Re: TPA

I came to say a similar thing, but you've saved me the bother. TPA = Not to be trusted.

With depressing predictability, FCC boss leaves office with a list of his deeds... and a giant middle finger to America

He could come to the UK

With his ability to not tell the truth, and to obfuscate facts (lie?), I'm sure Boris Johnson would welcome him in to a position of power.

I hope he stays where he is though.

Backers of Planet Computers' Astro Slide 5G phone furious after shock specs downgrade

"Anyone wanna buy this bridge?"

I may be behind the times here, but who on earth is willing to throw £500 at an unproven company for a product that doesn't yet exist, with no guarantee of refunds if it all goes wrong? Previous form on many similar products does not give a warm feeling.

As UK breaks away from Europe, Facebook tells Brits: You'll all be Californians soon

What a F*** Up

Another of the many wonderful benefits of Brexit.

/Sarcasm.

Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

Re: Pretty reckless

But they want it in the Southern hemisphere...

South Park creators have a new political satire series with some of the best AI-generated deepfakes on the internet yet

Re: click here

Your general point about the link text might be valid, but your way of pointing it out will not persuade people of your cause. I do hope you're not in sales, or deal with real people in your day job.

First they came for chess, then Go... and now, oh for crying out loud, AI systems can beat us at curling

Re: The Phantom Devil Comes Out to Play for Saints and Sinners :-) in CHAOS*

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Exercise-tracking app Strava to give away data sweated out after four billion runs, rides and rambles

I'm sure you are largely correct there, but remember that some Strava users are paying for the service, and getting additional benefits. I have no idea what proportion that is though (I'm not one of them).

Safety driver at the wheel of self-driving Uber car that killed a pedestrian is charged with negligent homicide

Re: Elephant in the cab

Sorry.

Take your pick: 'Hack-proof' blockchain-powered padlock defeated by Bluetooth replay attack or 1kg lump hammer

Re: Confessions of a bolt cutter

You may be right. The only sweepers I've seen though seem to have brushes with plastic bristles on. It's popular in the lock picking community to use the stainless steel strips found in wiper blades as tension tools, but I've not seen them used as picks. They might be a bit too thick, and they'd certainly need a handle of some kind added too.

Re: Confessions of a bolt cutter

I suspect your downvotes were because of your support for Extinction Rebellion. Just a guess though.

Re: Confessions of a bolt cutter

Lock picks are so cheap you may as well just buy them. I think you have different sweepers in the USA too, as I've never seen such things on the roads in the UK.

Amazon spies on staff, fires them by text for not hitting secretive targets, workers 'feel forced to work through pain, injuries' – report

Re: If you do not like this ...

I agree about not buying from Amazon if you can.

I wanted to buy a Velux window opening stick. Amazon had the correct thing, but I looked around and found a small window company in the UK selling them for similar price (maybe a pound more or so), but who didn't mention their postage charge. So I emailed them asking what it was, and waited. Few days later I just bought from Amazon, as they didn't get back to me.

Trouble with Amazon is that they make it so easy to buy from.

Sick of AI engines scraping your pics for facial recognition? Here's a way to Fawkes them right up

Re: "16th century failed assassin Guy Fawkes"

Blessed relief?

Nominet shakes up system for expiring .uk domains, just happens to choose one that will make it £millions. Again

This looks very dodgy

Surely, to be this bad the organisation must be run by a Tory minister, or one of their cronies?

UK formally abandons Europe’s Unified Patent Court, Germany plans to move forward nevertheless

Re: Patents are a complete mess worldwide, so ...

That was Registered Designs issue. Nothing to do with patents.

Re: cost of litigation

So, like everything else you have said, you've made it up. Your figures are nonsense, and most of your arguments are too.

Re: What sensible patent regimes?

Mr Kroes, I don't know where you learnt your patent law, but you have it all wrong. You can't renew a patent every 20 years. After 20 year it dies and is free to use by anyone.

Please link to some of these patents that cover gibberish that you mention. Patents aren't the easiest of documents to read, but to successfully sue someone you have to show they are infringing the claims of the patent. If it's gibberish then nobody will be doing that.

You can't patent the idea without explaining how the invention can be made to function. The patent is not valid if that is the case.

There is a requirement that a patented idea works. And if there wasn't, and I had a patent for something that didn't work, then nobody would infringe it, and it would have no value.

You are correct that litigation is expensive (although you have exaggerated the costs). There is in the UK the IPEC that is a lower cost approach, and so is within the scope of many smaller businesses.

I get that you hate patents, but there's no need to come out with this nonsense about them.

Re: Patents are a complete mess worldwide, so ...

I'd love to see some evidence of your statements. You are correct about the high cost of litigation, but that's about it.

Re: advantages all backwards

You are entirely correct. Mr Kroes on the other hand, isn't.

CEO of motherboard maker MSI dies after plunging from headquarters' seventh-floor

Re: Life Imitating Art

Linehan is not a bigot. He is sticking up for hard-fought women's rights. If you oppose that then maybe you are the bigot.

Mixed signals? Yes and no: Analog Devices snaps up rival Maxim Integrated for $20.9bn

Good luck to Maxim (and now AD)

I've always had a soft spot for Maxim, from my days designing circuits. Whenever I requested a sample device from them it arrived next day, along with a chocolate mint.

I wish them well.

After 84 years, Japan's Olympus shutters its camera biz, flogs it to private equity – smartphones are just too good

Re: Sorry to see them go...

I think the downvoters must have never seen the adverts.

CSI: Xiaomi. Snappy Redmi Note 9 Pro shows every fingerprint, but at least you get bang for your buck

Re: !!Stupid Question Alert!!

I think it's a reasonable question. Huawei made the mistake of being too successful, and hence economically threatening Apple, Cisco etc. in the USA, so Trump banned them. He says it's for security reasons of course, but I don't buy that personally.

Xiaomi will also be in the firing line if and when they are big enough, if it happens with Trump still in charge.

Blight the power: Jamming attack cripples wireless signals using clever reflective technology

It's passive in the sense that it's not generating any RF power of its own, and so is not detectable as a source of such power. A bit like how RFID tags in bank cards etc are passive - they modulate the impedance of the pickup coil, which is detectable by the transmit coil in the card reader, and so transmit energy without generating it. The term "semi-passive" is often used for such things.

Russia admits, yup, the Americans are right: One of our rocket's tanks just disintegrated in Earth's orbit

Re: Elon Musk isn't helping, is he

Downvoted for the irrelevant sexism.

Author of infamous Google diversity manifesto drops lawsuit against web giant

I think you are spot-on, and I also suspect that the author of the Register article either hasn't read it, or just wants to maintain the PC line that is the easy route to take.

The Great British anti-5G fruitcake Bakeoff: Group hugs, no guns, and David Icke

Re: The higher the frequency, the greater the energy

The ignorance in this post is stunning.

Come on Twitter, do your stuff.

I follow him on Twitter, just for the LULZ, but the man is a first order twat. The sooner he's kicked off the better.

Academics demand answers from NHS over potential data timebomb ticking inside new UK contact-tracing app

Think of the plus side ...

Facebook will soon be sending friend suggestions for everyone you have been close to in the last three months!

(This is a joke by the way. I won't be using the app).

So how do the coronavirus smartphone tracking apps actually work and should you download one to help?

Not for me thanks.

Any system whereby the UK government can access my data from such an app is a non-starter. I have zero trust in them, given their performance over the last four years or so.

Wanted: An exit strategy from the overt surveillance of smartphone contact tracing

Business opportunity

I foresee a business opportunity a bit like dog walking. I offer to collect people's phones, and take them on a journey, to simulate any desired trip. Be somewhere your phone isn't, and fool The Man.

Fitbit unfurls last new wearable before it's gobbled by Google, right on time for global pandemic lockdown

My Mi Band 3 is over a year old and still in regular use, and the battery lasts for a month. Other Mi Band 4's in the house are similar.

Xiaomi Mi Band 5?

It's actually the Mi Band 4 which is their latest one. It's very good too.

Short of tech talent to deal with novel coronavirus surge? Let us help – with free job ads on The Register

What a great gesture. Well done.

See title.

Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo dies aged 92

Well done Simon Sharwood

This is a great obituary.

Brexit Britain changes its mind, says non, nein, no to Europe's unified patent court – potentially sealing its fate

Re: For a contrasting view...

How about this one:

EP0170375

It earned its owner, and the inventor, millions each.

Windows 7 will not go gentle into that good night: Ageing OS refuses to shut down

Re: Microsoft has a long history of sabotaging products which they want their customers to replace.

Not just Microsoft. I've still not forgiven Google for destroying my Nexus 7 tablet with an "update" that made it totally unusable.

US government grounds drone fleet (no, not the military ones with Hellfire missiles) over Chinese espionage fears

The risk is high

I ate a Chinese curry last night, and now I've been banned from entry into my government job. They say I need to do a sh!t before I am allowed back in.

Well, well, well. Fancy that. UK.gov shelves planned pr0n block

Re: Yay!

I bet ECHR is next on their hit list.

Twitter: No, really, we're very sorry we sold your security info for a boatload of cash

Hmmm

That explains why I've had a sudden increase in spam to my main email address.

This won't end well. Microsoft's AI boffins unleash a bot that can generate fake comments for news articles

This is a boon!

A boon for the Tory party, brexiteers, MAGA a-holes etc. Next we'll have "better" quality bots on twitter and FB.

What can go wrong?