Posts by Frank N. Stein

Connected car data handover headache: There's no quick fix... and it's NOT just Land Rovers

This is why the most recent car I bought Isn't connected to Satellite Radio, Internet, or anything else. I don't need that "connected car" nonsense. I COULD activate that or built in WiFi, but I have no need for that, as my Phone has service and Google Maps, so I'll pass on activating any connected services. It's off, I know it's off, and I won't be activating or using any of it, especially after reading this article.

Some of you really don't want Windows 10's April 2018 update on your rigs

I I tried the update twice in May on my self built Windows 10 desktop, but my Machine refused it and restored back to 1709, where I still am, and everything runs fine without 1803. Disabled the Update Service for June and only in Late July, did I re-enable the update Service. It hasn't come and I don't think it will, which is fine. Meanwhile, my Windows 7 Lappy just hums along, despite being a rather old CF-74 Toughbook that works just fine and isn't compatible with Windows 10, which is fine with me.

No one wants new phones – it's chips that keep Samsung chugging

Part of the problem for USA Carriers is that, a lot of folks are not going for the "renting a phone"/phone lease rip off. Who wants a bill increase, just to have an incrementally upgraded phone? At my last phone upgrade, I bought a pre-owned iPhone 7 Plus for $400, because I wasn't interested in over-paying for a phone via full price, and wasn't interested in leasing a phone. None of this year's new phones inspired me to part with more money. SHRUG.

Microsoft vows to bridge phones to PCs, and this time it means it. Honest.

Re: sorry microsoft, you had this already

What happened, was Nadella became CEO of Microsoft. His only interest is "Cloud", and he lacks vision and skills to lead Microsoft much further than "Cloud". He can't seem to compute what is connected to "Cloud", what "Cloud" is used for as well as what it WILL be used for, and lacks the charisma to inspire anyone to do anything but bail on him. Worst CEO Choice ever made...

Microsoft's latest Windows 10 update downs Chrome, Cortana

Was wondering about this, myself. It arrived and was rock solid Stable, but these creator's updates have not been stable for my machine. If this is some trick to get us to buy new PC's, that trick isn't working on me. I won't do it. I recently bought a re-conditioned Panasonic Toughbook that runs Windows 7 and is NOT compatible with Windows 10, so I can avoid that crap-fest, at my laptop. THIS creator's update installed, and then Windows 10 decided to restore "back to my previous version", so at least I didn't get a Blue Screen of Death or have to re-install Windows 10. So, in my case, Windows 10 spotted something wrong with the May Creator's Update, and restored itself to the previous version. This is more a problem with the Creator's update, than Windows 10, installed before that. Nadella sucks as Microsoft CEO and his attempts to force Windows 10 on us all, is the stupidest decision ever made....

Apple and The Notched One: It can't hide the X-sized iPhone let-down

Looking forward to seeing Apple's products for this year and if they will make higher profits based on higher price or selling more iPhones. We'll just have to wait and see.

Virtual desktops won’t save cash in clouds or on-prem. So why care?

Higher Data Center costs...

Scott McNealy made this argument in 1997, with Java based thin clients and the rising Data Center Cost is what kept that from going anywhere. Virtualization on the Server works, if it is done right. Virtualization on desktops is an unnecessary step to remove the need for Service Desk Support. Desktop Virtualization is slow, and would require significant investment in Data Center machinery. What will happen when user's desktops and laptops are slow or frozen? Are they going to call an automated Service Desk to get AI Support? No. That's not going to happen. The clowns in Management who try to do this, just want to finance their own perks and bonuses, at the expense of system performance and Service Desk Support jobs.

Bill Gates declined offer to serve as Donald Trump's science advisor

Elon Musk, so he can convince Trump to be on the first human trip to Mars, thus, saving the world from more of his nonsense. And while Yank idiots support Trump, I've yet to hear of anyone from the EU supporting Trump. >:-)

IBM claims its machine learning library is 46x faster than TensorFlow

IBM is full of it. The Innovators have left for higher ground. IBM will slip into irrelevance, as long as they are saddled with Management overhead that isn't leading them anywhere. Too many cooks, making the soup. SHRUG.

Watson AI panned, 5¼ years of sales decline ... Does IBM now stand for Inferior Biz Model?

Re: Other than failing, what do the following have in common

Math tricks can't help IBM when they are paying a CEO a 33 million annual bonus that isn't performance based, while sacking staff and contractors. Watson is utter crap. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Server Hardware Techs who aren't being sacked are leaving to go to HPE. Failure is failure. No way to cover that, with IBM.

Re: Not sure comparing job postings is that accurate

IBM isn't "hiring". They have gutted their internal position ranks and sacked Contractors. They barely have enough staff and contractors left to do Server Support for their own products, as well as their client, Lenovo. Customers are bailing on Lenovo hardware, decreasing the need for Server Support Techs, but the one place where you find positions not being eliminated, is management. There are plenty of those, and they aren't doing anything more than sitting around, pointing and snapping fingers, and protecting their own positions while sacking the people who need to be there doing the work.

Security robot falls into pond after failing to spot stairs or water

At least it killed itself and didn't electrocute the idiot in the boots, who's standing in the water.

Microsoft admits to disabling third-party antivirus code if Win 10 doesn't like it

Microsoft is lying. Windows 10 uninstalled Norton after a reboot, until I disabled Windows Defender. Then, Norton installed and has been working fine, ever since. Microsoft will probably attempt to enable Windows Defender in some future update, but if it does that and removes Norton, I will disable Windows Defender and reinstall Norton. Screw Microsoft.

Texas says 'howdy' to completely driverless robo-cars on its roads

Great

This insures I never move to, visit, nor go on tour in Texas. They want KITT on their roads, they can have it without me.

BOFH: Halon is not a rad new vape flavour

HEROES

Simon and the the PFY are Super Heroes. You make my day, with these stories. Clearly, none of us would get away with any of this, but these thoughts likely cross all of our minds and that and the secret smile from them, is enough to get us through our days on our jobs. OY, MATE!!!

HPE hatches HPE Next – a radical overhaul plan so it won't be HPE Last

The end is near for HPE. Meg will perform "cost cutting" that include mass "Resource Actions", ala Ginny Rometti/IBM and Marissa Mayer, formerly of Yahoo. These Lasses get a pass, for some unknown reason, whereas blokes get sacked and paid off with Golden Parachutes.... Sad. Business School Mentality...

What's your worst nightmare? A Comcast, Charter cellphone network? Oh, it's coming

This explains Comcast Insistance on us all switching to their wireless router. In order to make this Comcast/Charter Wireless phone service deal through Verizon, happen. Problem is, it's caused Service Outages this week. No one at Comcast is providing any info. The Media needs to know about this.

Consultancy titan EY to shift jobs to Indian outsourcer TCS

This "Cost Savings"/Outsourcing isn't saving any of them any money. They're just switching columns in order to pay managers more for doing less and East Indians less for not being able to Speak Clear English and get the job done.

IBM asks contractors to take a pay cut

The quality of IBM's foreign Technical Support is Sub-Par at best and outright terrible, in most cases. Barely able to speak English. Most of the time, they'd be calling Hardware Warranty Support get Software, Hardware Or Network Config assistance that no one should be on staff tech should be calling anyone to get assistance with. Chatting with them was easier than talking with them over the phone, but what they'd be popping into chat for is to try to convince us to take their cases, claiming they were US Gov cases that they couldn't handle, or cases for Server hardware that they weren't trained to support. Why the hell were they hired and not train to support products? Counter productive to the whole point of "cost savings", with outsourcing, idn it?

UK ministers to push anti-encryption laws after election

Indeed. And now, the UK Gov indicated that they will stop sharing Intel with USA Gov Agencies, over concerns of UK Gov intel being "Leaked to the Press". Really? Guess they don't want anyone to know how they're using this Terror Attack as an excuse to attempt to force USA based Social Media firms to create Encryption Back Doors. Why doesn't the UK Gov just talk to their NSA buddies, who have a back door into the Internet Backbone, itself? The NSA has had that back door into the Internet Backbone since 9/11. It's a bit too coincidental that as soon as a Terror Attack happens, suddenly, the Gov calls for Encryption Backdoors that wouldn't have prevented this from happening. Internet Backbone Tap, from the NSA to Your Gov negates the need for an encryption backdoor. By the way, once that backdoor exists, the Gov's won't be the only ones able to access it, which is the point of not doing it, in the first place.

Amazon Drive bans rclone storage client

"It's common for developers inadvertently to include secrets such as API keys and login credentials, unencrypted, in code posted to public repositories. But this isn't quite the same thing." This sounds like it's admitted that screw ups who are "inadvertently" screwing up on a regular basis, is common. Shouldn't be that way. How can someone just inadvertently screw up? No skills? THAT is far more common than people think... As far as this Cloud thing? This is just more evidence that it is not the be all/end all, or best solution.

Has AI gone too far? DeepTingle turns El Reg news into terrible erotica

Right.

So a couple of Uni students can make a so-called AI write smut in the style of some smut writer who writes gay porn? Brilliant. Not curing disease. Not abolition Hunger. Not creating useful tech that solves actual problems. So called AI that writes gay porn. Outstanding (SARCASM)....

Self-driving car devs face 6-month backlog on vital $85,000 LIDAR kit

How many Self Driving Car startups are there? Guess they'll need deep pockets. That should delay this Self Driving Car nonsense, long enough....

Dell BIOS update borks PCs

WOW. This sort of thing usually happens with Lenovo. Not Dell. Was this Bios Update recommended by outsourced techs? That would explain it.

IBM's pension fund sells most of its IBM shares

"Firstly, IBM's pension fund deciding that holding IBM stock isn't the best way to meet its obligations is hardly a vote of confidence in the company's future. Or a vote of confidence in the tech sector in general.

Second, the pension fund is not the only company worried about Big Blue's prospects. Also in Q1, widely-admired investor Warren Buffet recently shed most of his IBM stock after reportedly souring on Big Blue's prospects. Buffet is thought to worry that for all of IBM's impressive dividend-paying powers, its long string of quarterly revenue reductions doesn't exactly suggest its planned cloud-and-AI-fueled rebound is imminent. ®"

Right. And the layoffs that they can't hide, nor the mass exodus of Server Hardware Support Techs to HPE, isn't a vote of confidence on the part of escaping staff who prefer not to go down with the ship...

Volvo is letting Android 'take over underlying car software' – report

My 96 Volvo 850 GLT thankfully, doesn't have any connected tech. I don't need that nonsense. I use my Android Phone already for GPS. That's as far as I'll go. So, I won't be buying any new Volvo's or Audis that have any connected Tech other than a radio. #PASS.

Dude hit with $300K bill for faking his hours, hacking boss's website

Dude gets canned for falsifying billed hours, then company is hacked, and he's caught? Big surprise. He deserves it.

Well, hot-diggity-damn, BlackBerry's KEYone is one hell of a comeback

I'll take one, as soon as Sprint starts selling them.

Apple nabs permit to experiment with self-driving iCars in Cali

If Apple somehow made this work in a car that performed well, handled well, and got decent gas mileage, and people WANTED it, AND it was priced correctly, it could make them a boatload of cash and put them some steps ahead of Google, in that area.

Google fumes after US Dept of Labor accuses ad giant of lowballing pay for women

Google can out wait the government. They have more money and better lawyers. Good luck trying to force them to pay anyone more money.

Microsoft nicks one more Apple idea: An ad-supported OS

Sure, it takes effort to disable the Windows 10 crapware, but I've done it, and others have too. We'll see what they bring with that "Creator's Update". It would be interesting to see what happens if you DO NOT up date to that.

FCC under fire for trying to ditch cybersecurity

The FCC Chair is just a Lazy drone, who wants to earn a paycheck, while doing little to nothing. There is too much government bureaucracy, and too much of no one doing anything useful accept sitting around talking and talking about doing something, when little to nothing is happening. The FCC just sits on their hands. At least the Democrats are introducing bills that would force the FCC to DO SOMETHING. The Republicans aren't going to do much accept help their big bucks buddies do nothing but make more money, see to it that the rest of us barely stay afloat, and probably help cyber attacks happen, in order to make more money. The Republicans will just forestall these bills without making it appear that they oppose efforts to enhance cyber security, and continue as much mass surveillance as they can legally get away with, on the premise of protecting us from terrorists, while just making a note of anyone who opposes their plans, ideas, and rules.

Force employees to take DNA tests for bosses? We've got a new law to make that happen, beam House Republicans

I'm not submitting blood samples or any other genetic information to any employer. Screw that and screw them, as well as FRAK ME CARE. Pass on both.

Official: America auto-scanned visitors' social media profiles. Also: It didn't work properly

These idiots have also instituted "mandatory groping" to "check for weapons", at American Airports. They apparently forgot that all of the weapons found, have been in BAGGAGE, not down the tops of women or pants of men. This is little more than legal freakery. And there is NO WAY that it is legal to force ANYONE to submit passwords and banking information to TSA agents, just because they want to monitor everyone for possible terrorists. When the airlines start losing money from less people flying into or around the country and less passengers from abroad traveling to the USA, what will Trump's excuse to the Airlines and Airports be? His money buddies won't be happy. He'll have to back the attack dogs and freaks, off.

Oh my God, 911 is down. Quick, call… aaargh!

Are we sure that this whole thing wasn't due to a Sys Admin who doesn't have the skills to do their job? There is a lot of that going around at numerous companies, large, medium, and small, and yes, AT&T is among them. Verizon's Network has been known to buckle, due to Hallmark using them for their mobile device using Card stockers. AT&T is supposed to have a network that is robust enough to handle this but it seems, not. So Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile suffered 911 outages, but Sprint, never has? I guess they don't route 911 traffic, which is good. That alleged 1% difference in their network might be the 1% that drops 911 calls.

Jesse Jackson to Apple CEO Cook: Hire black

Apple doesn't give a flying frack about creative professionals, and cares even less about "diversity". That doesn't fill management pockets with cash. That is all that matters to them. If Apple cared about creative professionals, they wouldn't have an all mobile product line devoid of upgradability. They would have consumer lines and business lines, in order to gain profits from both markets. That takes Vision, which Cook clearly lacks. It's funny, because you see Macbook Pros in sales and management, but as far as general use below the management and sales positions in businesses, no one is going to pay MORE for a Mac when a PC will get the job done for less, for most staff members who aren't in management. The bean counters won't allow it. Apple wouldn't be against customers repairing the equipment they bought and paid for, saving themselves piles of cash that Apple would prefer be paid to them for repairs, instead. And the notion of the iPad replacing a PC? Perhaps for someone who just wants to consume content and doesn't create or produce anything. The iPad doesn't replace a Mac or PC. It's an add on device that's primarily for content consumption, not content creation. The iPad Pro isn't exactly flying off shelves and innovating, like crazy. Let's see how long those lines are for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Apple can cook the books on that all they want, but not producing enough phones to sell at launch, does not equal high demand.

HPE offers SimpliVity staff a chance to become Living Dead

The "Empire" strikes. Big surprise. This is what the Corporate Vampires do. Bet the management at SimpliVampire cashed out with livable payments, whereas staff get the proverbial SHAGGING, as usual...

Pai, Pai, Mr American spy: FCC supremo rips up privacy protections for broadband punters

"Pai Pai"?? This guy isn't even American. Wonderful. Just great. Was already using VPN. Screw these trolling *********

I was authorized to trash my employer's network, sysadmin tells court

Re: What interests me

No. A CEO would be fired and receive a Golden Parachute to cushion the blow. Apples an Oranges. This bloke was an IT Drone. Those of us who are IT Drones know full well that we are not treated like CEOs (or CIO's, for that matter).

Paper factory fired its sysadmin. He returned via VPN and caused $1m in damage. Now jailed

Did the idiots who still worked there just not revoke his login? Seems like it. Maybe HE is not the one they should've sacked. Seems like the idiots who remained are at least to blame for not revoking his access.

Huge if true: iPhone 8 will feature 3D selfies, rodent defibrillator

#YAWN. PASS. Nothing impressive in the rumors. Let's see what they actually bring. I'd say "Thinner and Lighter", with tech that already existed in Android Phones and will suddenly be hailed as MAJOR innovations.

BlackBerry sued by hundreds of staffers 'fooled' into quitting

I hope Blackberry LOSES the class action and this Nokia Lawsuit.

As Microsoft touts Windows Insider for biz, let's take a look at W10's broken 2FA logins

I hope and pray I'm not forced to use Windows 10 on my work machine. So far, no. Let us pray.

That guy using a Surface you keep seeing around town could be a spy

Really? LENOVO didn't make the list? Why not? Their Servers are in use by the government. Hmm...

All of Blighty's attack submarines are out of action – report

Since The Sun reported this first, El Reg shouldn't fear reprisals from GCHQ, hopefully. Perhaps if your Gov less resources into spying on citizens and more into the purchase of better quality subs, such circumstances would not have occurred?

Crack in black: Matte iPhones losing paint at alarming rate, gripe fans

Bailed on Apple after the 5C. Wasn't impressed with the 6 or 6Plus, nor any of the newer iPhones. Won't be going back to Apple for anything new...

Oracle settles court spat with fired cloud 'sales inflation whistleblower'

Isn't there some law against bumping up sales figures? Isn't that FRAUD?? Can shareholders sue for that??

Oracle refuses to let Java copyright battle die – another appeal filed in war against Google

Is Oracle's Legal Counsel having trouble keeping his side piece layered in presents? This is pathetic and ridiculous. Could some developer just come up with a stable and secure alternative to anything Java and just kill everyone's desire to use it? Can some other database vendor produce a database that kills anyone's desire to use any Oracle database? And while we're at it, let's make Sun and Solaris even more irrellevant so that Linux supersedes it and kills anyone's desire to use that? Then, Oracle can just go down in flames and save us all from it!!

Microsoft's DRM can expose Windows-on-Tor users' IP address

Hmm...

Stop downloading WMV porn files. Flash files, instead. Problem solved.

Microsoft's Q2: LinkedIn In, Mobile out, Azure up, Xbox down

I stopped using LinkedIN the moment Microsoft got hold of it. No Thanks!!!