* Posts by StephenH

59 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Sep 2012

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Rancher faces prison for trying to breed absolute unit of a sheep

StephenH
Coat

Ewe's cream for ice cream

Should have worked on mega dairy sheep. The milk yield of regular sheep is pretty low

Server installer fails to spot STOP button – because he wasn't an archaeologist

StephenH

Rules don't apply to the military

My brother once worked for a plumber contracted to do maintenance on an Australian Army base. For basic stuff like replacing tap washers, there was no handy mains tap to turn off the water or available plans that show where pipes go. After unsuccessfully trying to track pipes using a metal detector they considered freezing the pipes but instead just developed the skill of very very quickly replacing a whole tap with the water pressure still on at full pressure.

Cow-counting app abused by China 'to spy on US states'

StephenH
Coat

Cow counting app was the second attempt

The first version used a sheep counting app but the computer kept going to sleep.

Google Cloud (over)Run: How a free trial experiment ended with a $72,000 bill overnight

StephenH

Re: Or declare insolvency.

There is a reason why I own nothing & everything is in my wife's name. I trust her far more than Google

Heck yeah, we should have access to our own cars' repair data: Voters in US state approve a landmark right-to-repair ballot measure

StephenH

Re: John Deere

John Deere tractor owners have been using hacked firmware from Ukraine for years

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/john-deere-tractor-hacks-ukrainian/

0ops. 1,OOO-plus parking fine refunds ordered after drivers typed 'O' instead of '0'

StephenH

Re: And this ladies and gentlemen...

Having paper tickets allows a driver who has paid for more parking than they have used to give the ticket to someone else.

That might prevent the council from raising more than one hour of parking fees per hour which they clearly would not want.

Geneticists throw hands in the air, change gene naming rules to finally stop Microsoft Excel eating their data

StephenH

Re: I must be missing something...

I had a similar issue with customer reference numbers for bPay payments. These are 16 digits and excel changes the last digit to zero. I was using google sheets as it didn't do this.

Then google announced an upgrade to make it more compatible with Excel and introduced the same problem.

So you really didn't touch the settings at all, huh? Well, this print-out from my secret backup says otherwise

StephenH

Re: Ah, customers.

"Technology manager said he has no idea but whatever he does he does it very well. His is the one team who don't cause IT and engineering any problems"

That could mean you don't actually do anything but are very convincing.

Google Chrome to block file downloads – from .exe to .txt – over HTTP by default this year. And we're OK with this

StephenH

So much for my home server

I have an alfresco document server on a vmware win10 image at my office and a wd NAS at home for photos and videos- Both environments I trust enough not go to the hassle of setting up a ssl.

In fact I don't even know how to go about setting one up for a 192.168.1.x ip without a domain name.

Remember the Dutch kid who stuck his finger in a dam to save the village? Here's the IT equivalent

StephenH

HP desktop PCs still have the power switch just above the dvd drive with the drive eject button at the corresponding spot below the drive

The safest place to save your files is somewhere nobody will ever look

StephenH

Re: Editing Docs from Email

There have been quite a number of occasions when people have thought they emailed me a document or worksheet but what they have sent me is a shortcut to the file on their local desktop.

The dread sound of the squeaking caster in the humming data centre

StephenH

Re: Gone fishing?

When I was at Uni, a common challenge with chain printers was to find out the sequence of letters on the chain and then print something that would cause all the hammers to strike at once, repeatedly.

WikiLeaks boss Assange acted as a foreign spy, Uncle Sam exclaims in fresh rap sheet

StephenH

Re: This will be fun to watch...

It seems to me (not an American) that the US Constitutional protections do not only apply to citizens but to all.

The are some rights identified as only for citizens (voting for example) but the free speech, due process and self-incrimination ones are not so restricted

Backup your files with CrashPlan! Except this file type. No, not that one either. Try again...

StephenH

Works for me

I been using them for a few years and am pretty happy with them. I don't know about some of the claims that they lost their data without notice. I get a daily status report and warnings if a drive han't been backed up for 48 hours. I think the time period is use selectable. As for restoring files I recently restored a version of a file from a few days ago as daily versions are kept.

While it won't backup VM files directly it will backup mapped drives which works ok for me.

The backup service doesn't always seem to start with windows & needs to be manually started from time to time. As an inexpensive small business option, and my the only backup, it's ok for me.

Internet industry freaks out over proposed unlimited price hikes on .org domain names

StephenH

Re: Protection Racket

"Say, that is a nice price hike you implemented. It would be a shame if we started an investigation. But don't worry, if you let us add a tax to it, we will make sure you never have any problems."

Or, You could avoid us imposing a the tax by contributing to our campaign

Uber won't face criminal charges after its robo-car killed woman crossing street

StephenH

Re: What? The car can't do emergency braking on it's own?

"So the computer identified it needed to brake, logged it, then carried on."

As long as the documentation is complete and accurate, it will probably pass the QA audit

Cops called after pair enter Canadian home and give it a good clean

StephenH

There was an episode of The Amazing Race where the contestants had to go to an address and paint room. They went to the wrong place but the occupant, who didn't speak English, still let the contestants in and paint.

Only after the task was complete and the contestants asked for their next clue which the occupant couldn't provide did they start to suspect something was wrong.

Space station springs a leak while astronauts are asleep (but don't panic)

StephenH

Re: You can buy it online for $10 a roll.

$10 a roll plus delivery charges of ?

Automated payment machines do NOT work the same all over the world – as I found out

StephenH

Re: English?

"^ah kangaroi" is always accompanied by placing hands side by side at chest height

No lie-in this morning? Thank the Moon's gravitational pull

StephenH

Re: "Eclipses would be far more common, though."

The eclipses wouldn't have been as pretty though. They would completely block the sun without the annular ring effect

Birds can feel Earth's magnetic fields? Yeah, that might fly. Bioboffins find vital sense proteins

StephenH

Re: How would it feel?

I can walk out of a building or a series of underground shopping malls and correctly know which direction it is back to my hotel or where I parked the car. When I'm in the northern hemisphere I still feel the same confidence but am usually 180 degrees out.

There is also 1 part of Sydney (Marrickville) where I consistently lose my sense of direction and have done so for 40 years. Wonder if there is a magnetic anomaly there.

Australia commits to establish space agency with no budget, plan, name, deadline …

StephenH

Re: How difficult can this be?

Someone agrees with you https://spaceaustralia.com.au/

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser

StephenH

Re: Resist with crowdfunded RPNs...

A fellow in Kiama NSW did something similar, but it was 12km so he installed his own microwave link

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/4400580/wollongong-man-builds-radio-network-to-get-nbn-access/

Australian Taxation Office won't penalise Plutus contractors

StephenH

No comfort for employers

The rules have always been that if your are an employee and you employer deducts tax but fails to pay it on to the tax office, the employee will still get the credits and the ATO will chase the employer. The ATO FAQ simply repeats this.

The employers who paid the gross pay to Plutus as not off the hook. They still owe the tax to the ATO.

Employers are also in a double bind with superannuation contributions. The contributions haven't been paid to the super funds so the employers still have an obligation to make sure they get paid, and because they were not paid on time they are not entitled to a tax deduction for the contribution.

Australian Taxation Office named as party preventing IT contractors being paid

StephenH

Re: @ Red Bren

In Australia, if you put two lines across a cheque and write Not Negotiable on it, the cheque cannot be cashed. It must be deposited into an account. If it also has Account Payee Only, the bank account must belong to the payee.

These are security measures to stop stolen cheques being cashed.

Global IPv4 address drought: Seriously, we're done now. We're done

StephenH

Re: IPv6 usage soaring?

Would that be mainly mobile phone users?

Australian government never asked nbn™ to apply for private loans

StephenH

The Aust Govt could have borrowed at 1.8%pa over ten years back in January, now it's 2.7%. Perhaps they should have done this sooner.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/the-economy/infrastructure-opportunity-knocked--canberra-wasnt-home-still-isnt-20161122-gsuqva.html

18 seconds that blacked out South Australia

StephenH

Re: What redundancy?

Unfortunately, the location of those "dangerous to health" and "ugly" wind farms, is not always determined by engineering considerations.

Days are numbered for the Czech Republic

StephenH

Trying to use logic and consistency in the pronunciation of place names? That's not a game you can win.

Hack a garage and the car inside with a child's toy and a few chips

StephenH

Re: Driving the car

"but then the cost & complexity of the fob, etc, goes up a lot."

VW charge about $300 for a key replacement. I'm sure there is plenty of room to add complexity without the manufacturers starting to lose money

Indiana Jones whips Bond in greatest movie character poll

StephenH

Where's

Ferris?

Stolen an Apple watch? Want to pawn it off? Good news!

StephenH
Pirate

I've been wearing a $38 Chinese knock-off for a few months, certainly from before the Apple version become available. It's gold looking but has a cheap band - I have been asked about it 3 times by shop employees.

Now I wonder if it's making me a target for a mugging.

(BTW It's andorid only and fairly functional )

Are you sure there are servers in this cold, dark basement?

StephenH

Not so strange that the revenge was happening in an identical manner

I've seen lots of staff in companies do stupid things "because that was the way they did it "last year

Wanna free web domain for a year? Hey, it's not rocket .science

StephenH

sheblindedmewith.science is taken

YOU. Your women are mine. Give them to me. I want to sell them

StephenH

I had a copyright claim on a clip of my band doing a cover of a song we hadn't written. Almost immediately a copyright notice come up. That was not a surprise but but the claim was not for the original of the song. It was a totally different song that happened to start with the same opening chord - E major.

There is a option to acknowledge the claim, or to assert copyright yourself but no way of saying the claimant is wrong. I tried to follow this up but the response was that if I am not the song owner, it's not my concern.

Nope. That's not our FAKE BOMB say Oz spooks and cops

StephenH
Big Brother

Special security operation - you do you know you're going to gaol for publishing this story?

CLOUD-to-CLOUD backup: A chasm-Spanning leap

StephenH
Meh

Great sales pitch

"We have unlimited storage for unlimited cost."

Unlimited costs - sounds like a Defence contract

Microsoft whips out real-time translator for Skype calls

StephenH

Re: German

I had a University lecturer from Pakistan who learnt English in Germany. I suspect this will be similar

Ten excellent FREE PC apps to brighten your Windows

StephenH

To install all in one go

Best way to obtain and install of the the apps mentioned is ninite.com . Tick the programs you want from the list and it installs them all with a single click while bypassing the optional adware that many come with

Met Office: 2014 was fifteenth warmest on record

StephenH

Re: wtf is Palaeopiezometry?

How did you go with "bonzodoodaology" ? Can't wait for that one to be published

Oz gov lets slip: telco metadata might be available to civil courts

StephenH

They'll claim those protesting are just friends of criminals and terrorists - they can be tarred as such and safely ignored

Free government-penned crypto can swipe identities

StephenH

Re: Am I reading this correctly?

Or sit in a Centrelink office waiting area - you can be pretty sure the people there will 1. Have a Centrelink card and 2. Be waiting for a long time

Deloitte's dumb rules stop us from telling you about everyone else's dumb rules

StephenH

You can't get a copy of the report without an order, signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters

Oz trade minister RUBBISHES TPP fears

StephenH

It's not the first time that Govt ministers have jumped on semantics. The extension of patent duration delays the time before drugs go down in price. It does not make them go up.

Cops apologise for leaving EXPLOSIVES in suitcase at airport

StephenH

We can be confident that we won't be reading of stuff ups like this in the future - once the laws making reporting such things illegal get through.

Boffins build CYBORG-MOTHRA but not for evil: For search & rescue

StephenH

"I'm not sure how much use a moth will be in airlifting the victims out of the disaster zone."

Frank Zappa has already demonstrated this principal in his tale of Billy The Mountain" in which the protagonist goes into a telephone booth, covers his body with maple syrup and used the resulting swarm of flies to raise said booth into the sky.

In space no one can hear you scream, but Voyager 1 can hear A ROAR

StephenH

"now 19,093,090,914km from Earth at the time of writing and moving further away at a rate of about 15km a second"

If that is true I am impressed with writers ability to time his typing the the nearest .07 of a second being the time that the craft takes to travel a km.

MIT and CERN's secure webmail plan stumped by PayPal freeze

StephenH

"questioned ...if we have government approval to encrypt emails"

Does Paypal have government approval to ask such questions?

Vodafone Australia's 'doubles user traffic' on free weekend

StephenH
WTF?

You can keep usage down on a free weekend by keeping it secret

I'm a vodafone user and they certainly didn't contact me to tell about any free data weekend.

El Reg's Deep Outback XP upgrade almost foiled by KILLER ARACHNIDS

StephenH

BTW the red back spider antivenom whose existence we have been comforted by for decades is now claimed to be ineffective

http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/redback-antivenom-ineffective-research-finds

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