Posts by Duffy Moon

Public Wi-Fi operator investigating cyberattack at UK's busiest train stations

Re: Nightsleeper

I only watched the first episode and it was obviously so badly written in many ways that I bailed rather than endure the agony of attempting the rest of the story. I just don't have the time to waste on such rubbish. Now we know that the UK can produce top quality TV - you only have to see Slow Horses to realise that - but the terrestrial channels seem to be run by idiots. To be fair, there's been a steady downward slide since Thatcher started meddling in the late eighties, booting out Alisdair Milne as BBC DG and implementing the 1990 Broadcasting Act (RIP Thames TV).

iGulu F1 could be the hoppy ending to your home-brew horror show

These fancy brewing machines have been around for a few years now, but they're all a bit dear. Maybe Ninja will bring one out at an affordable price.

Dumping us into ad tier of Prime Video when we paid for ad-free is 'unfair' – lawsuit

Re: Large DVD collection in the attic format shifted to a NAS for viewing.

They didn't, did they?! That's the best episode as well!

Meta's next-gen Oculus headset kit left in a hotel room

Re: Sounds like

Yes, the whole Facebook registration requirement has steered me towards HTC or Valve for my VR headset needs.

More than half of UK workers would consider jumping ship if a hybrid work option were withdrawn by their company

I can only dream of working from home, or a decent wage for that matter. *sigh*

Microsoft touts Windows 11 SE: A locked-down OS to give Chromebooks a run for their money in schools

Re: not really

"Had to stop and say hello to a guy wearing a ZX Spectrum t-shirt."

There was only one?!

Alexa, swap out this code that Amazon approved for malware... Installed Skills can double-cross their users

Re: Talk to a computer? why would I do that?

I understand the hostility against them, but Echo devices and the like, are very useful for those with disabilities which make typing difficult.

Not on your Zoom, not on Teams, not Google Meet, not BlueJeans. WebEx, Skype and Houseparty make us itch. No, not FaceTime, not even Twitch

Re: Nobody wants to use this stuff. It's dehumanising.

"And the mere cattle become tasty burgers."

Well, burgers anyway.

Transport for London data pilot: We want to keep tabs on dockless bikes and e-bikes

They might as well allow their use, as they're everywhere now. At least they might be able to tax them then (all revenue to go to the NHS to pay for the inevitable treatment when the user ends up in A&E).

UK test-and-trace coronavirus data may be handed to police to nab those who aren't self-isolating as required

Carrot or stick

The UK government prefers the 'stick' approach, when perhaps the 'carrot' (i.e. paying people to self-isolate) might encourage people to get tested and actually self-isolate.

Teracube whips out cheap, fixable phone with removable battery and four-year warranty

Re: Well, good luck

"Toasters *should* be repairable."

They certainly can be. I bought a used Rowlett toaster about twenty years ago. Replacement elements are available (as well as other spares, of course). I have replaced the elements once in that time.

TCL's latest e-ink tech looks good on paper, but Chinese giant will have to back up extraordinary claims

I would just like a decent-sized, reasonably priced, colour ereader with a built-in light, so that I can read magazines, journals and comic books on it.

Soft press keys for locked-down devs: Three new models of old school 60-key Happy Hacking 'board out next month

Re: Alternatives?

I have a nice Das keyboard, which I bought used from the 'bay. It was as good as new really. I can't remember what I paid for it, but I'm poor so it wouldn't have been much.

We've paused Sigfox roof aerial payments, says WND-UK, but we'll make you whole after COVID

This reminds me of a story my dad told me about a cable (presumably for radio) which was attached to his house in the '60s. The cable company used to pay him a small fee for the use of his house. When they stopped paying, he got a ladder and some wire cutters out...

SpaceX Crew Dragon docks at International Space Station

I do hope that nobody involved in building the least reliable cars in the western world, were involved in building the Dragon.

Linus Torvalds drops Intel and adopts 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper on personal PC

Re: $$$

£1595 in 1995 is the equivalent to just over £3000 now.

It is unclear why something designed to pump fuel into a car needs an ad-spewing computer strapped to it, but here we are

Re: Huh?

"And how many don't know about the Petrol pump symbol on the fuel gauge which tells you the side the filler cap is on?"

My Honda Civic doesn't have this. I'm not sure about a bracket for holding the fuel cap - I just plonk it on the car roof.

Android 11 Developer Preview 3 allows your mobe to become a router via USB Ethernet – if you can get a decent signal

My first smartphone was a Samsung S4. I bought a dock for it, which had an HDMI and USB sockets. I connected it to a mouse, keyboard and monitor which worked very nicely. Then the next Android version came out and the dock no longer worked. I was not best pleased.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds: They're good – though for close to £300, they really should be

"HD-600’s are open back if i recall correctly, which leak sound,"

I keep my HD600s at home. For out and about use (which won't be happening much in the next few months!) I take my HD25-IIs - they're closed back, sound great and are almost indestructible.

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

"But the TV series was terrible"

The amazing Rod Lord animations however, did bring a new dimension to the story.

Personally, I can't bring myself to watch the film. To me, it's an abomination and should never have been made (if it hadn't, maybe Douglas would still be with us).

Re: Time travel

Adjusted for inflation, those prices would be (in 2019):

£1.37 (13p in 1974)

98p (17p in 1978)

£1.21 (21p in 1978)

£1.50 (26p in 1978)

£1.62 (28p in 1978)

so, far from rising meteorically, the prices were lower in real terms.

A few weeks ago, I actually paid £8 for a pint of (admittedly very nice Beavertown Lupuloid IPA) beer!

Re: May the towel be with you!

"Actually I do still have my original Hitch Hiker towel"

I remember seeing one of those in the window of the old Forbidden Planet shop in Denmark Street. I couldn't afford it at the time (I bought the theme tune single instead), so I am quite jealous. I wonder if someone makes a reproduction...

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now: Brexit tea towel says it'll just be the gigabit broadband

"a brexiter who likes football and despises cyclists"

That fits the usual profile (why do so many of them have a football club emblem as a profile pic?!).

Re: Drying

"The research (commissioned by a major paper towel manufacturer) showed that bacteria would form on the floor"

Strange that hospitals have paper towels rather than driers then (at least for clinical staff).

Anyway, Dyson Blades blow upwards - so bacteria/viruses right into your face (exactly where you don't want them!).

Ever dream of being an astronaut? Now’s your chance. NASA wants new people for the Moon and Mars

Three years too old and haven't got the correct passport. Their loss.

Worried about future planet-cleansing superbugs? But distrust AI? Guess you're not interested in these antibiotics

Re: Overuse

"ask doc to provide/prescribe some probiotics to repopulate after"

You can get probiotics on prescription?! I've never heard of this.

Flipping heck: Footage leaks of Samsung's upcoming bendy smartphone in action

Re: For some reason...

I'm reminded of Lady Penelope's powder compact phone...but squarer.

EU declares it'll Make USB-C Great Again™. You hear that, Apple?

Re: Good start

"boy does that makes us popular on country roads with oncoming traffic that think we are driving with main beam on, with a intensity on that would rival some trucks."

I've been driving for thirty years (no, not continuously) and used to enjoy driving at night. Now I avoid it whenever possible, as headlights are mostly far too bright. Half the time, I can barely see the road markings, as my eyes are constantly adjusting to mild flash blindness. I have the brightest halogen bulbs I can get, but even at full beam they are half as bright as new car lights.

Re: Your toothbrush is broken

I got one of the non-rechargeable Oral B ones. Seven quid. I put Eneloop batteries in, so it'll last as long as the motor does.

'Earworn Wearables' will save the day (wireless earbuds, but cool name for your D&D halfling)

I just refer to them as "idiot earplugs"

Computer says no: An expression-analysing AI has been picking out job candidates for Unilever

Computerised interviews

All the interviews I've had, might as well have been performed by a computer - they were all the same. I understand the need for standardisation, accountability and all that stuff, but the human element seems to have fallen by the wayside somewhat.

If you're good at making up stories about what you did in particular situations that saved the day (they don't have to be true of course - who's going to check?!), what your strengths, weaknesses and transferable skills are etc. In short, today's standardised interview is a measure of precisely one thing: how good/well-practised you are at interviews. I expect psychopaths are pretty good at them, since they don't tend to be anxious...

£250m fund for NHS artificial intelligence laboratory slammed as tech for tech's sake

Re: it's worth a go.

"Couldn't you just get a loan for that?"

I don't know. That's a lot of money to owe. I'm 49 now and I wouldn't qualify until I was about 56. You don't get well-paid until you've been in the job for a while. I don't think I have enough years left, unfortunately.

Re: it's worth a go.

"£250M is loose change compared to the overall NHS budget"

True, nut how many doctors could they train for that?

I had all the necessary qualifications and experience, but tried three or four times to get a place at medical school, to no avail (due to the insane amount of competition for so few places). Then they put the fees up to £9000 per year, killing all my hopes.

The top three attributes for getting injured on e-scooters? Having no helmet, being drunk or drugged, oddly enough

Aren't they illegal to ride on pavements or public roads though?

Gov flings £10m to help businesses get Brexit-ready with, um... information packs

I think I'll apply

I wonder if I can get some funding to produce an accurate information pack, containing all the currently-available information. So that's a blank sheet of paper. Got to be worth a least a few thousand, surely?

Y'know how everyone hated it when tuition fees went up? Cutting them now could harm science, say UK Lords

Re: Meh

"The idea that everyone in the 50% of the school-leaver population who were encouraged to go to university would actually benefit from it is crazy."

This policy was based upon the ideological fallacy that creating more graduates would magically create more graduate-level jobs, instead of what it has done - create more unemployed/low-paid graduates in debt and turned universities into profit-led institutions.

Xbox daddy bakes bread with 4,000-year-old Egyptian yeast

Re: Its all in the temperature

Also "Lipton Yellow" is not fit to be called tea.

British ISPs throw in the towel, give up sending out toothless copyright infringement warnings

Re: value of genuine content

All4 has a lot of good content, but none of it is in HD. It's 2019!

Gonna be so cool when we finally get into space, float among the stars, work out every day, inject testosterone...

"needles are bad news because it requires very precise manipulation"

Testosterone is injected intramuscularly, which is about as precise as throwing a dart at yourself. Still, the possibility of drops of blood/testosterone floating around and getting into the equipment is probably something they'd want to avoid.

Oblivious 'influencers' work on 3.6-roentgen tans in Chernobyl after realising TV show based on real nuclear TITSUP

Re: iPhone?

"Q. How do you know if somebody is a vegan.

A. They tell everyone.

Better, I think:

A. Don't worry, they'll tell you."

I heard the same joke, but applied to people who've been to Oxbridge.

Cocaine, psychedelics, DMT? They sure knew how to party 1,000 years ago: Archaeologists make startling discovery

"Maybe our ancestors understood that hallucinogens don't actually connect you with anything, they just bring out your inner wanker."

Hallucinogens don't do that, but cocaine certainly will.

Cali Right-to-Repair law dropped, cracks screen, has to be taken to authorized repair shop

"I would just put them in the recycling box"

My council recycling service does not accept hard plastics. I assume this is the same for most (all?) others.

Buying a second-hand hard drive on eBay? You've got a 'one in two' chance of finding personal info still on it

"My normal procedure for disposing of drives is much easier - it just requires a power drill"

I prefer the more fun, and less power-hungry method - a BGH (Bloody Great Hammer).

Re: Uh??

Magnets, bitch!

And in current affairs... Apple recalls three-prong AC adapters after some shocking behavior

Re: But...

"in both cases it was the plastic earth pin that broke"

I think there should be a special section of Hell (one without any of the cool people) reserved for those who produce plugs/wall-warts with plastic earth pins.

Gather round, friends. Listen close. It's time to list the five biggest lies about 5G

Re: New and shiny but practically pointless

"Off Topic, but does it bug anybody else that it's millipede and not megapede? "

Not really. That would mean 'big legs' or 'million legs'. OK, they don't actually have one thousand legs, but 'millipede' still seems more appropriate.

Prince Harry takes a stand against poverty, injustice, inequality? Er, no, Fortnite

Re: Thanks Harry

Of course it was not only the royals, but all their Norman mates who stole all our land and still haven't given it back after a thousand years.

It's funny really, the idea of claiming land ownership by way of brutish thuggery would be frowned upon these days, but we have done nothing to reverse those claims.

Perhaps a land tax would be a good step?

Finally, after years of dunking on Magic Leap, El Reg's Kieren tries out the techno hype goggles. And the verdict...

"I was able to get a prescription using a machine that looked into my eyes and dynamically adjusted focus a number of times and then printed out the result in a few seconds"

I've experienced that machine for several years at Boots, but they still also use the old-fashioned methods as well - presumably they use both as a comparison.

I buy good frames (acetate) online, then send them off to a 'reglazing' service. It's still expensive as I'm very myopic and prefer thin lenses, but still cheaper than the outrageous high street prices.

Biker sues Google Fiber: I broke my leg, borked my ankle in trench dug to lay ad giant's pipe

Re: Bork

"Interestingly, the original meaning of the word (in the mid 20th century) did mean to obstruct, after an American Judge by the name of Bork."

Thank you. I'm glad that someone else actually bothered to look it up in a dictionary!

FYI: You could make Tesla's Autopilot swerve into traffic with a few stickers on the road

Tesla fanbois

Tesla seems to attract the same blind devotion as Apple. I see so many people on Twitter praising them like they're a quantum leap in people-moving technology, when they're unaffordable by most and, from what I have heard, the least reliable cars on the road (which is bizarre considering how few moving parts they have compared to ICE cars).