Posts by JimboSmith

Trump guts digital ID rules, claims they help 'illegal aliens' commit fraud

Re: Addendum

How old are you?

Nobody remembers that song...

Oi, I resemble that remark!

Ukraine strikes Russian bomber-maker with hack attack

Re: CAD design files ?

Yes the DGSI or the DGSE cannot remember which, found out about the mole/source leaking to the Russians and I believe deliberately doctored the plans that the mole had access to.

Re: Thank goodness

1. The SMO was screwed up by our deception.

2. Ordinary Ukrainians do not want this.

3. I think their soldiers would prefer their lives with their families than a salute and the hardened gung-ho element really did include a lot of Nazis.

Oh and you know some Ukrainians do you?

I do and when I showed them what you’ve posted they said it was total crap. I also know an expat Russian who said the same thing as the Ukrainians.

Nationwide power outages knock Spain, Portugal offline

My Samsung with a headphone jack (A12) doesn’t have an FM radio which is annoying because normally I don’t buy a phone without one. I only bought that one because I was going abroad and the backlight on the then current phone had died. The £30 Nokia I have does have a FM radio on it and in an area with a strong station I don’t even need the headphone cable. It’s much better with the cable though or one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364200907544 and plays through the phone speaker.

Need a Linux admin? Ask a hair stylist to introduce you to a worried mother

Re: Mine was shelf stacking in a supermarket

I started off making the tea in one department and ended up before being made redundant as deputy head of another department. I was once on a conference call with people from across the company and our new head of IT. Most amusingly he hadn’t got around to meeting many people in the firm and therefore no idea who most people were on the call. Someone described me as the “company expert” on one particular system which was nice of them. However that meant I had a separate calls afterwards from the new IT head asking me questions and trying my best to answer them.

I caught up with the person who had given me that title in the canteen and asked them “Why me”?

She said “You’re the only person I know who has read the manual, I don’t know anyone else who has.”

I got some unwanted extra attention and work from that which I didn’t need.

Krebs throws himself on the grenade, resigns from SentinelOne after Trump revokes clearances

Re: It is so refreshing and hopeful to see some people with integrity and a backbone.

Mr Krebs posted this in response to Mark Hamill’s translation of a tweet by Trump about his firing.

In defending democracy, do or do not, there is no try. This is the way. #Protect2020 @HamillHimself @PedroPascal1

https://x.com/C_C_Krebs/status/1328953421882413056

A friend who is a Yank and a Yankees fan and a republican said at the time

It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You didn’t get as many votes, nor electoral college votes, so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!

Users hated a new app – maybe so much they filed a fake support call

Re: Fake interest in product

Whilst working for a company in a large building I picked up the phone to someone who was trying to sell me double glazing. Their offer was pay for the downstairs windows and the upstairs ones were free. He told me all about the quality and made out that the materials were first rate. I said yes I’d be very interested how quickly could someone get here to give me a quote? He took the address but sounded a bit suspicious when asking for the postcode.

He then asked if he had called a business to which I said yes, apparently commercial property was excluded. He asked out of curiosity how many windows we had and i said that not counting the ground floor well over 100 “That’s why we don’t do commercial property” came the reply. I asked what had given me away and he said I was far too keen to get a quote. He took that number off their dialing list.

'Copilot will remember key details about you' for a 'catered to you' experience

Re: Oh look !

Yet another reason to tell MS to fark off...

Could not agree more and it is to my great shame that I can only upvote you once.

How is this going to work with GDPR?

Windows 11 adds auto-recovery, kills offline setup loophole

Not necessarily 1998, he just knew that Mac OS won't easily run on the non-Apple hardware.

Retail staff must really love the customers who are deliberately obtuse to make their job harder.

But, if it helps with self-esteem for the smart-arse then at least does some good.

I work in retail and I have dealt with staff* in the businesses I’ve worked at, and also elsewhere. This bloke for my laptop wasn’t a very communicative person and not the best at technology. He was a little bit clueless as to whether the laptop I was enquiring about had USB-C as it wasn’t mentioned on the ticket (no display model) and he didn’t have the initiative to check on the internet or their internal systems. He also had a total disregard for the customer, as he went to talk to a colleague after initially talking to me and then spent 10 minutes talking to the colleague rather than coming back to me with the information.

It was only when I walked over to the pair of them that he suddenly remembered I existed. He then had to go and find the information he’d gone to get because the bloke he was talking to didn’t work in that area and didn’t know. He did know that Nick was having a party on Saturday night, that it was bring a bottle and that it was worth going just to see Nick’s new girlfriend who apparently was (and probably still is) extremely good looking and a bit too good for Nick. I know this because I was able to hear them talking from where I was standing.

*who have in one case been hired for no reason other than they turned up for the interview and no one else did, on a transport strike day.

Anonymous Coward

I had to reinstall a windows10 laptop for somebody without internet access recently. The whole "you must have a microsoft account" thing is a massive pain the ass. All of the loopholes I've used to get around it in the past *no longer work*. It took me over an hour of fannying about to make it install (I'm not a newbie, I have been a developer and sysadmin for over 30 years).

And then it was locked in fucking S mode. And they tell you that the only way to remove S mode is to install an app from the Microsoft Store, for which you need network access and a Microsoft Account. I eventually found a way around that too but seriously what a huge waste of time to do something that should be simple and easy.

It just shows what utter contempt Microsoft has for the their customers that they deliberately go to such lengths to make life difficult for them.

Do you know that was the exact reason that I decided to dump MS on a new laptop and go with Mint instead.

I was told by the sales bloke that it came with a free trial of MS Office which I said I didn’t want. I asked if they had any machines that didn’t have Windows installed and he said no you have to have it don’t you or the computer won’t work. When I mentioned Linux he just looked a bit blank, so I said what about Apple? Again he just looked blank. Frustrated by the Windows Account and that blasted S Mode, I got a USB stick out and wiped out Windows with Linux.

GCHQ intern took top secret spy tool home, now faces prison

Re: How?

Many years ago I was taking a small group round a business I used to work at. They were guests of the Chairman & Chief Exec so had friends in very high places. I was told to show them everything including the Server rooms etc. Well as we were approaching the secure door to the server room I asked everyone to show me that their phone was off not just on airplane mode before entry. Most people were happy to comply except one pompous git who said he couldn’t do that as he was so important he couldn’t risk missing call etc.

I said okay fine you can wait out here whilst the rest of the group go in. Boy was I unpopular with him, he tells me he’s mates with the CEO or the Chairman (can’t remember which) and I should be more respectful etc. I pointed to a sign that said something like no mobiles no exceptions and reiterated he wasn’t going in with his switched on. Well he’s unhappy with this but eventually after repeating my ultimatum he agreed to turn the phone off.

Tour (including the roor terrace with very good views) over we head to the boardroom where the CEO and Chairman are waiting. Mr Important relays his disgust at having to turn his phone off and says it was all my fault. One of the two most senior bosses looks at him and says “Oh come on man up and grow a pair, if he says turn it off then do so, I have to too.”

I made my excuses and left at this point. This wasn’t a top secrets containing secure installation in any way like GCHQ. I would have hoped that they had more stringent and stricter rules and regulations.

Apple hallucinated Siri's future AI features, lawsuit claims

Re: Given this....

I discovered that despite turning off Apple Intelligence on my iPad, after the last update it was magically reenabled. I found out when opening the email app and being presented with a screen about Apple Intelligence atop of my emails. Instantly disabled this again and cursed Apple, if told you I didn’t want it before then the least you could do is ask before reenabling it. I didn’t ask for AI and don’t want it.

OK, Google: Are you killing Assistant and replacing it with Gemini?

Re: Nooooo.

I have another one but I’m not airing that one just in case someone from Microsoft is reading.

Re: Nooooo.

But please leave your "testing putting the Gemini multimodal API inside applications" in the testing phase only, to spare the rest of us that don't want AI shoved into everything for a multitude of reasons. Thanks.

I have a form of neurodversity where I have trouble with things popping up when I’m typing. I therefore have a very great problem with Outlook etc. suggesting words after the one I’m typing at that point. I only use outlook at work and the AI on windows attempts to guess what I’m going to type next and puts it up on the screen. That gives me issues and if I shut the AI down in Task Manager when I start typing it comes back. I have to use a workaround to avoid this, one of which is to use Notepad to compose emails and then copy and paste it into the reply. I can’t delete or rename the exe because I don’t have admin privileges.to let me do that.

Don't want Copilot app on your Windows 11 machine? Install this official update

"The app is unintentionally uninstalled and unpinned from the taskbar."

Sounds perfect to me, shame it isn’t an option for everyone. I’d be willing to offer any of our tech support real money/booze etc. to have it removed permanently.

Celonis slaps SAP with lawsuit claiming it's gatekeeping customer data

Re: What a world

Spot on with that description, is it any wonder SAP are all hot on retiring ECC and pushing everyone and their data to the cloud on S/4HANA.

Apple has locked me in the same monopolistic cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

Re: If you want a general purpose computer ...

My long suffering mum has an iPhone and a Mac because Which (the consumer organisation) told her that they were the best. Except recently Apple made changes to IOS and moved stuff on her iPhone. Some apps were put into groups/folders without her permission/knowlege and as it doesn’t take much to light the blue touchpaper with her……..She’s gone off Apple. She asked what I used and when I said Android and Linux she looked at me blankly. I then explained that there are more OS’s than windows and Mac and IOS etc. however given she’s got the latest IOS phone that cost a packet she’s probably not going to change that. Doesn’t stop her from slagging off Apple at every opportunity she gets though.

Governments can't seem to stop asking for secret backdoors

I had a chat with my mum abot this a few years ago when a politician brought up E2EE and the “dangers” of it. She’d just started using online banking despite her advancing years and found it very useful. I said to her without E2EE her new found way of banking wouldn’t be possible. A slightly dumbed down explanation followed where she then understood a lot of things rely on E2EE. I said the second you put in a back door then you cn assume multiple criminals will be looking for this easy way in. Imagine shopping online and paying only to have your purchase redirected or your card details stolen and used elsewhere. She said why don’t politicians understand this? I said she’d answered her own question there, they’re politicians and whilst not all of them are clueless idiots, there are more than a few around who were.

Techie pulled an all-nighter that one mistake turned into an all-weekender

Re: Ouch!!!

I once cut instead of copied a folder in a directory and posted it into my new folder in another drive. After I’d done this I was about to go back into the original folder and leave a read me text file. However the folder wasn’t there, and a realisation that I might have clicked cut rather than copy dawned. I replaced the folder back where it should have been just as my desk phone started to ring. That was an confused rather than angry user who wanted to know why their software wasn’t working properly. I suggested that they just restarted the thing and maybe the issue would go away.

Non-biz Skype kicks the bucket on May 5

Skype was actually very helpful for me because of the ability to make calls to USA toll free numbers. When calling a company in the US, if they had such a number, then the call was free which was great. I cannot see Teams doing that in my lifetime. What was really brilliant was the system Three had on their mobiles, from Skype. There were even Skype phones on Three as seen here. It allowed you to use Skype without using any data on your phone. As I understand it, it used the PSTN and connected to Skype that way. As a result it meant that anywhere you had even a ropey signal even if data was a problem you could still make calls. I once sat in the middle of nowhere in the British countryside and made a call to the toll free number of the phone company we use in the USA. Microsoft killed that off as well.

DIMM techies weren’t allowed to leave the building until proven to not be pilferers

Re: Seen that

One place I worked at there was an employee who was running a business selling stuff via ebay. It wasn’t nicked items, that was legit, but he was using the company packing materials and postroom. They were caught when one evening all the post had gone but the next morning first thing, there were several packages in the postroom waiting to go out. The security manager opened one of them and noted the contents. Then did a search of sold items on ebay and found that exact item had sold the previous evening at 5pm when the auction had ended. Having noted the seller details the manager found the closest end time for one of the seller's auctions and placed a large bid so they were guaranteed to win.

Then they just waited for the auction to end and sat in the postroom afterwards. Idiot turns up with a package and is told to open it which they are reluctant to do. It is opened in his presence and the security manager says that this doesn’t need sending as he won the auction. They looked at this bloke’s stationery orders and it was mostly bubble wrap, boxes etc. Bloke was made to repay his spent stationery budget for the year and what they could prove he’d sent from the office.

Oh and then he was fired for gross misconduct.

User said he did nothing that explained his dead PC – does a new motherboard count?

Re: Changing hardware

Yeah I’m fairly certain that there was something in their software that would have objected to that setup. It really was done cack handedly by them to get their cash cow of a product onto Windows. One suspects that they wouldn’t have even made a Windows version if competitors with Windows ready programs hadn’t popped up.

Changing hardware

We had a new shiny Windows version of the DOS program that the software company we used had been very slowly updating for years. There were other companies who had released Windows versions ages ago but we were locked into the ecosystem of this firm. This was either during the Win 95 or the Win 98 era my memory doesn’t remember that detail from that long ago. We’d actually spent some proper money too for once, getting updated higher specced machines, which were going to be new for the roll out of the Windows version. So I have one of the tech team from the software company with me and he’s getting ready to install the software on one of these machines. First thing he asked me was where the floppy drive was, and I said that we didn’t have them on the new machines. His face became a contorted picture I will never forget until I die. He asked how were we going to do the mandatory daily backups then, without there being a floppy drive? At this point I thought he was joking and to continue the joke said that I knew we were installing the new DOS version not Windows.

He is not joking and says that we’re installing the Windows version and where is the floppy drive on this machine, “it also needs to be the A: drive”. I explained that we had servers now that could back up many times more than a floppy disc and we could just back it up there. These backups to the server can be mirrored and stored offsite too. “No” he says, like the DOS version, the Windows one backs up to a floppy drive, and we must have one. I dug out a computer with such a drive and he installs the software showing me what to do. So I then realise that the Windows version is a straight port of the DOS version including the dumb backups to floppy. This version costs extra per month but is hardly any better.

I reported this to my boss who is not thrilled about this unwelcome development given the capex on new machines. He has however been told we’re using it by the senior management so there’s no choice atnthat time. However he also tells me to quietly investigate a rival company that produces a product that was built from the beginning for Windows. Eventually we dumped the original firm and went with their competitor. They didn’t require a floppy drive for backups, could back up to a server and it was a better product all round. It also meant we could use the shiny new machines. We could also finally roll out and use the new machines we’d bought.

Brits must prove their age on adult sites by July, says watchdog

Re: Bonkers

This is a privacy fail and it won't keep underage off sites.

No you’re quite correct of course it won’t but it’s a good example of Daily Mail* politics. Simply pick something that the Daily Mail readers are up in arms over and introduce rules/legislation to ‘fix’ it. It doesn’t matter that it is the equivalent of sticking a Band Aid plaster over a large crack in a dam. It’s that you’re seen to be doing something even if it’s likely to be bloody ineffective.

*If it includes something to do with the late Diana Princess of Wales then it could also be Daily Express politics

Re: Here we go again...

The only thing this might achieve is to convince porn sites to relocate their operations outside of the UK, which I guess one might make a moral argument for if one gives a shit about porn, which I don't think the vast majority of people actually do these days, but from an economic standpoint is hardly a win at a time when we're supposed to be all about growth.

After the extreme porn law came in a few UK based and owned fetish sites transferred their ownership nominally to a US citizen. In Scotland they have more draconian restrictions on smut but and this is the fun part, they won’t even tell you what constitutes extreme smut.

https://www.theregister.com/2011/01/25/ignorance_of_scottish_pr0n_law_no_defence/

A spokesman told us: "We do not publicly disclose our prosecution policy in relation to specific offences as to do so may allow offenders to adapt or restrict their behaviour to conduct which falls short of our prosecution threshold."

Is it really the plan to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal? It's been a weird week

Re: Trolling or attention-seeking

Romania, with their 'election inteference' and simply cancelling the results completely.

I thought the Supreme Court in Romania had made a judgement about the election based on the evidence presented before it. That tends to be what courts do if my somewhat limited experience of them is anything to go by. They look at evidence, deliberate and then make a judgement, that’s what happened here isn’t it? That’s certainly what my Romanian friend says has happened and they say the Supreme Court is independent. That’s why it is important to have an independent judiciary rather than one that does what it is told, which my Russian friend says happens in Russia. There’s a joke about how the decision for your case is already made before you walk into the courtroom. They say it’s a joke you don’t tell anyone else, because of the consequences if you do.Are you suggesting that the Romanian Supreme Court are not independent?

Which might be coming soon to a Germany near you, if those pesky Germans vote for the wrong party.

I think unless I’m very much mistaken the courts in Germany already make judgements.

Re: The unipolar world is officially dead

I've got a Russian ex colleague who has family and friends still in Russia, so I won't going into too much detail about them. They say that the inflation is ridiculous at over 9% and interest rates are insane at 21%. The more financially educated are worried about a recession or worse stagflation but people are worried about saying anything in case they're locked up for it. Butter so expensive criminals are stealing it in bulk, poatoes Coca Cola up 200% in a year, eggs up 30% etc.

Outlook is poor for those still on Windows Mail, Calendar, People apps by end of year

Re: As noted

Tbird slows down like a mofo any time your mailboxes start getting big. On the other hand, Outlook's search simply doesn't work. Pick your slow death.

Could not agree more about outlook search being crap. When I try and do a search the first thing it does is say that it’s having trouble contacting to the server despite the fact that it’s connected to our work network fine. Then it gives me this message “Let's look on your computer instead” which is pointless as I don’t store any emails there. If I stop the search and then run it again it works fine on the second attempt.

Also why when I search a shared mailbox does the search default automatically to all mailboxes? i don’t want to search all makl boxen just the shared one but every time it deafaukts to that. Now if I search my inbox then it’s just searching that one. I’ve changed the search options in settings and it doesn’t do anything which is annoying. The more annoying thing is in the new look outlook it doesn’t/didn’t have the all mailboxes option. Problem is I thought the new look outlook was so awful as a GUI that I reverted it back shortly after trying it.

EU irate about geo-locked Apple IDs

I managed to switch my country on my ipad by simply ditching the old ID. I don’t really use the app/apple store for anythIng as I really just browse the net on my tablet. So there wasn’t any digital content to lose by doing that. The reason I switched to the USA, which I did whilst in the USA was because I needed the Comcast app which you can’t download outside of the US. Oh and a VPN so that I can view the TV we’re paying for in the USA whilst actually in the UK.

The only problem I had was I couldn’t update Firefox (and yes I know it isn’t really Firefox) which I downloaded on the old ID. I worked out I just had to delete that app and reinstall it again on the new ID to be able to update it.

Microsoft rolls out AI-enabled Notepad to Windows Insiders

Re: Meanwhile...

Who in their right mind wanted this outside of Microsoft? Is this following the schtick “if you add AI to it they will come”? I bloody won’t!

On the last feedback for software I left when prompted I said in the comments, if you add AI you’ll lose me as a customer. I’ve asked our compliance department whether the use of AI is GDPR compliant in the hopes it can be removed and banned.

Your air fryer might be snitching on you to China

I actually use it as well as a watch for reading messages when my phone would be inappropriate or inaccessible. Also if i walk away from my phone it buzzes to warn me. I preferred my Pebble watch with e-ink screen and insane battery life but that stopped charging so I needed a replacement.

I don’t know why I would want to connect my air fryer, hair dryer, TV etc. to my phone in the first place. When I’m shopping, anything that says “smart” is to me what garlic, sunlight and a cross are to a vampire and I avoid it like the plague. The Samsung watch I have asks for all sorts of permissions on the phone which I deny it and then block it from any network connection with a firewall on my phone.

Openreach reveals latest locations facing the copper chop

Re: Link

My parents have a normal copper phone line and broadband on fibre from one of the regional rural providers who use their own fibre. When they were getting a new landline phone contract recently they called BT and asked for a quote. Bloke on the other end says we can do your broadband too and sends a quote for full fibre along with the phone. Being a suspicious old git and before I let them sign any contract, I used the postcode checker on Openreach website ( https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker/ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband Low and behold it says

“Not yet available”

so I called BT and asked it what happens with their phone line based panic alarm (which is an insurance requirement) if they get fibre? Bloke says they need to talk to their provider of this alarm oh and must invest in a battery backup (UPS) in case the power (as it occasionally does) goes out. Okay, so follow up question to that, how do they intended to offer this full fibre to my folks house given what Openreach are saying. Bloke eventually admits that there isn’t Openreach fibre in the village and they therefore can’t offer fibre at this time. I will get them a UPS when the time comes but there is a lousy to non existent mobile signal (on all networks) inside the house so the suggestion to just use that instead in an emergency is hardly going to work.

Capita wins £135M extension on much-delayed UK smart meter rollout

Re: Had two calls in one day...

You must know the old joke about the double glazing salesman who sells a woman a whole house of windows with no money down, nothing to pay for 8 months, interest free terms. The head of the finance team calls the woman after 8 months and asks her for the money.

“No” she says “I don’t owe you anything!”

“With respect madam you do owe us for your windows, the 8 months are up”

“No the salesman was very clear on this when i got them”

“Madam….”

“He said they’d pay for themselves in 6 months and it’s now been 8 months. Therefore, and I’m not an idiot, they’ve been paid for obviously. Don’t call me again.”

Cybercrooks strut away with haute couture Harvey Nichols data

Re: once again fully secure

I liked the paragraph:

Alluding to a potential vulnerability, the document sent to customers states: "The issue that allowed the attack to succeed has now been closed so our system is once again fully secure, and we have engaged experts to ensure it remains so."

Are those the same experts that you should have used in the first place or different ones?

Lebanon: At least nine dead, thousands hurt after Hezbollah pagers explode

Re: Technology question

Today’s explosive objects are apparently walkie talkies. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwyl9048gx8t

Since when is WhatsApp and especially SMS unreliable?

I was still getting pager messages (back when I had a pager) when my colleagues with mobiles had no mobile signal. I remember being driven on the edge of Dartmoor and none of the rest of the party got the SMS because they had no service. My pager did however and we turned round having read it. The same was true in Harrods and a few other large buildings in the London. I currently have a WhatsApp message that refuses to send, it has a big red circle next to it with a white i in it. Rebooting the app and even the phone makes no difference.

They switched to pagers because of concerns their phones would be too easy to hack.

I remember back in the day when pagers were used widely in this country, especially by the political parties. There was a point when just how easy the messages were to intercept and decode was made bloody obvious. Someone passed on messages sent by the the Labour party, to a national newspaper, who printed some of them. This resulted in

Mobile pager companies are to hold an urgent meeting to discuss security measures next week after the revelation that hackers monitored messages sent to aides of the Labour Leader, Tony Blair

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/pager-firms-move-to-block-hackers-1356582.html

If I remember correctly it was very easy to do, it just required a basic computer, a radio capable of receiving the correct frequency and some small software that (from memory could fit on a floppy &) was available on the internet. Tracking down someone doing this was next to impossible because as the pager could be anywhere in the UK, the message had to be sent all across the UK to make sure it was received by the recipient. Therefore you could be in London, Liverpool, Llandudno, Lostwithiel, Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel etc. and

Yes there is a much much lower chance you can be tracked with a pager. Hopefully however they’ve fixed the ease with which messages can be read once intercepted.

Microsoft unveils Office LTSC 2024 for users that remain stubbornly offline

Re: Ob: LibreOffice

You can now move it to the left again if that’s what you (and many others) want to do.

It's all drying up: Microsoft to erase 3D Paint from digital store

Re: Who even used it?

Actually it does have one very useful feature that I liked which is the magic select and the ability to rotate the selected piece. Other than that I didn't use for anything else.

Users call on Microsoft to update Outlook's friendly name feature

Re: Headers anyone

One Drive is Sharepoint, just with a different front end on it. on the back end, it's the same dumpster fire. the search functionality doesn't a) know the difference; or b) can't be configured to be more selective.

Deep down I knew something along those lines was the case. It’s just bloody annoying when what should be a 30 second process takes 10 - 15 minutes because Microsoft can’t be arsed.

Re: Headers anyone

My current pet peeves with Microsoft are the search functionality on Sharepoint and Outlook. Why is the search on Sharepoint tied to my frigging OneDrive, so I can’t just search Sharepoint without also looking through my files? What’s that all about then, other than annoying. For example I have 300+ copies of a form on my onedrive all saved as form name, a customer or staff identifier and the date. If I do a search for the update to that form on Sharepoint I have to wade through the 300+ copies I have and other detritus on my onedrive before possibly finding the new form.

If I wanted to search the bloody onedrive I would have done so myself, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to.

Also on Outlook if I’m searching one of several shared mailboxes I have access to, why:

when I select my personal inbox does it default to search “current folder”

But

when I search a shared inbox does it default to “all mailboxes”?

I’ve tried in vain to find how to change those but Microsoft seem to think they shouldn’t be customisable.

Speed limiters arrive for all new cars in the European Union

Re: Good

If you need a machine to do that, then get a taxi. You are a danger to road users if you require assistance like that to control the vehicle.

I was in a taxi recently heading towards Knightsbridge on my way to the West End late one night. One of those foreign fast cars that seem endemic in the summer with boy racer and trophy girlfriend inside pulled up at the lights next to us. He’s revving the engine like a madman I assume to show off, and it’s making a terrible noise. I said to the cab driver that it wasn’t big or clever to do that and he laughed. “I’ve got got decades more behind the wheel than him,, this is also an electric taxi so I’ve far better acceleration than him from the lights and a bus lane to use, he’s toast. And he was

HP to discontinue online-only e-series LaserJet amid user gripes

Re: I still will not buy a HP printer

I don't believe your story for a minute. You're lying to us!

You never found a member of staff to talk to in Curry's!

This was a while ago and sadly I didn’t find him, he found me. In my local branch they pounce on customers who are viewing certain products. If you’re looking at something cheap like mouse mats or photo paper fugeddaboutit but something expensive will instantly see you in their crosshairs. I managed a good 20 mins looking at inexpensive items with an intent to purchase*. Before getting bored and wandering over to a laptop to check when the next bus was coming. Sales bloke immediately appeared in front of me like Road Runner in the cartoons and asked if I needed help with purchasing anything.

*did actually need to know if that was the extent of the range they had etc.

Re: I still will not buy a HP printer

I still will not buy a HP printer

They lost my trust a long time ago.

I also avoid products that require some on-line connection in order to work.

Yeah I don't like products that won't function without online access either. I tried to buy a camera for viewing my front door. It was just for letting me see who was at the door making a delivery, when (and this is crucial) I was at home, in the garden or out the back. It would be hardwired to a router and on a closed circuit wifi network. So trying to buy from a bricks and mortar store instaed of online. Went into my local electrical retailer named after an Indian dish as I happened to be passing. Gave the sales bloke my exact requirements, told him it was only for viewing whilst at home and there obviously couldn't be any internet or cloud element. I also said that I didn't really need recording and if he'd got nothing that fit the bill please would he tell me now so I could go elsewhere.

He then proceeded to show me a Ring doorbell which when queried if they'd released an update to allow offline working admitted no they hadn't. So strike one there.

I then was shown a Nest, Hive and I think something else all of which needed an internet/cloud connection to work at all. More strikes there then and reluctant admittance that yes they all needed the internet/cloud etc.

When I said no to all of them he informed me that I was obviously going to need the internet or how could I view the camera when away from home? I asked if he'd listened to my requirements when I first spoke to him and he rather bizarrely said yes. I asked what use the camera would be if the the cloud service went down or the company went bust? He didn't have an answer to that. I told him I'd try elsewhere and got a Foscam on Amazon.

UN telecom watchdog wags finger at Russia for satellite interference

Fun fact: Russian aerospace companies were suppliers to Western aircraft manufacturers.

Yeah I’m sure the Ukrainians currently being shelled, attacked by missiles and killed just for being Ukrainian and living in Ukraine think it’s hysterical.

Like making heat exchangers for Boing.

Boing, the Miracle Plastic

Microsoft makes it harder to avoid OneDrive during new Windows 11 installs

Then there's Office, which always tries to save to OneDrive by default

Oh good grief yes that's so bloody annoying, also goes at work with the share a link to the file on OneDrive rather than attach it in Outlook. That's against company policy for external emails. Plus why when I'm searching on Sharepoint for an updated version of a form I use regularly at work does it also search my blasted OneDrive? If I wanted to search OneDrive I would have done so in the first place.

Britain's Ministry of Defence accused of wasting £174M on 'external advice'

Re: Only on comms?

Nothing said of the billions water on the weapons and equipment that are never and will never be used, the rockets keept ready for nuclear war that wouldn't even involve the UK anyway,

But no, let's get on their case about a comms system. Not the fantastical waste that is almost every aspect of their existence.

Somebody hasn't been keeping up with the rhetoric coming out of Russia recently then. Former President Medvedev said

'Attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 will lead to only one thing,' he said. 'Towards a global war with Western countries using the entire strategic arsenal of our state. In Kyiv, Berlin, London, Washington.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13097421/kremlin-threatens-Armageddon-west-russia-loses-Ukraine.html

So those of us in London are toast apparently and that's before as mentioned in the previous post we respond as part of NATO.

Techie installed 'user attitude readjustment tool' after getting hammered in a Police station

Re: User attitude readjustment tool

They don’t say where it was, but if it was some rural market town then you’re likely to be a bit stuck. I can imagine with no handy tech shops around then you probably won’t be able to get something specialised very quickly. French chalk might have worked I suppose but again finding someone selling that is equally unlikely. So you have to improvise and that may have been the best option. It would doubtless have dried out overnight once used and you’re not going to be pulling live electric cables through walls are you?