Posts by arctic_haze

Microsoft buries the bad Windows Phone news: Mobile sales collapse

Re: Other phones?

The feature phones, mostly in Asia. They sold the whole division to Foxconn recently so the fat lady has already sung.

Plenty of fish in the C, IEEE finds in language popularity contest

Re: Haven't heard of R

I use R a lot. I love the almost magic-like syntax which recognizes whether you want to add numbers or vectors. Loops are used only when the R developer imagination fails.

And true, when someone asks me what R is, I say that is an implementation of S.

Microsoft stops to smell the roses, creates the Shazam of flowers

Is there any synergy with telemetry?

Will they be able to monetize the data on the flower lovers?

Yahoo! She said yes. Verizon confirms $4.8bn acquisition

Drinking to the deal

Just one question. Isn't the price about $5.0bn too high?

Microsoft to rip up P2P Skype, killing native Mac, Linux apps

It is a move in the right direction

I refused to use Skype since it was bought by Microsoft. However, I might consider using its cloud version if no Microsoft code needs to be installed. I am fully aware "all your talks are belong to Redmont (and some government agencies)" but at least I would know when they spy on me.

What keeps former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani awake at night?

That's a reasonable fear

I half expected it would be the Pokemons.

Physicists confirm X(4140)

Charming and strange

How French!

Behold the ROBOT RECTUM... medics' relief

An idea worth of the 21th century

Robot inserting metal objects in your rectum? What can go wrong?!

Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware goes FULL SCREEN in final push

Re: Updates off - Rock on

I plan my next computer to be Linux with a virtual Windows XP for some old software I have. Somehow everything I use every day is available in Linux (GCC, R Language, LibreOffice, Firefox to name only the most important examples).

Dev boss: What will Microsoft do with Windows 10 Mobile? Surprise – it's for work!

Re: Surface?

I believe an x86 Surface phone was the plan. It died when Intel cancelled the very Atom chips (code-named Sofia and Broxton) for mobile devices.

Brexit government pledge sought to keep EU-backed UK science alive

Re: "Hook demanded an immediate pledge"

When I joked two days ago that next thing after Brexit should be abolishing science in the UK, I received a few down votes.

And now we see a real example of the very narrow mind attitude.

Physicists build simulator, hope to stand up beautiful Standard Model

Re: Next thing after Brexit

I am an "oversees" scientist (from the English point of view) who cooperates with colleagues both in England and Scotland. I feel sorry for the English ones (who all told me how a Brexit would screw their work) and I congratulate the Scottish ones their unavoidable independence!

Next thing after Brexit

Just after Brexit we should abolish science. John Bull needs no scientific gibberish.

And too many scientists are foreigners, anyway.

It's [insert month] of 2016, and your Windows PC can still be owned by [insert document type]

Re: The obligatory question

It's not rhetorical. For now I wait with installing any of them. I expect more foul play from Microsoft as the deadline approaches (and possibly a delay in the deadline... for our good).

The obligatory question

Which one of them will make my life happier by shoving Windows 10 up my ass?

Microsoft buys LinkedIn for the price of 36 Instagrams

Re: Good bye LinkedIn

I did that. First I changed all my data except email (not possible in this case). Then I used advice from this page:

http://thelinkedinman.com/how-to-close-and-delete-your-linkedin-account/

As the reason I gave Other, namely "I do not want an account in a Microsoft company".

Good Bye LinkedIn!!!

Good bye LinkedIn

I have a semi-dead account over there. I wondered whether to upgrade it when I find time. But this news made my decision. I'll delete it as soon as I the replacement password gets through greylisting (the account is so old they did not even allow me to log in but just sent out a new password).

Firefox 48 beta brings 'largest change ever' thanks to 'Electrolysis'

Re: "ability to whitelist plugins has been excised"

This is actually a good move. It means Adobe Flash will stop being white-listed.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Plugins/Firefox_Whitelist

Plutonian 'lava lamp' seas give dwarf planet a regular face lift

Clueless journalists and conspiracy theories

I wonder if she is not one of the persons who believe Apollo 11 landed in a Hollywood studio. Her comment could be read as an allusion to possible data fabrication.

Even as a fan of crackpot theories one needs some consistency. If Moon landings were fake, how can we believe in other space missions? The Earth is flat after all so the conception of an "orbit" is obviously false as well, isn't it?

Juno yields to Jupiter's gravitational embrace

How will this end?

In February 2018, the Jovians will have their Roswell.

90 days of Android sales almost beat 9 months' worth for all flavours of Win 10

Re: It's dead

No, the Lumia line is not dead.

It's only pining for the Finland fjords.

Re: sometimes I'm easily pleased

" I'm so fed up with the device (and it only took 2 months!), that i am never going to get a Windows 10 device again."

Luckily for you there may not be any more Lumia models. You are stuck with the final vagary of the sinking line.

However, you may be lured in future by Microsoft into buying the new and better SurfacePhone (or whatever they will name it) and live to regret it. Just remember you have been warned.

The Sons of Kahn and the Witch of Wookey

Re: Erm....

"more like episodes 4-6 in feel, rather than 1-3"

That's why the first line of dialog in The Force Awakens runs:

"This will begin to make things right".

No kidding.

How Nokia is (and isn't) back in the phone business today

Re: "Only" four?

Are you joking? Samsung had something like 13 Galaxy line models since this January

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy

India roasts as mercury hits 51°C

Re: This shows why...

Our grandchildren will crap on our graves in revenge for the state of the world we will leave them.

Russia faces Ukraine and Georgia in Eurovision deathmatch

So Ukraine won and Russia was third

And frankly speaking both the songs (and also the Australian one in the second place) were good ones, at least on the scale of Eurovision entertainment.

It's only a shame that the votes of the juries and the public seem to be anticorrelated.

Researcher arrested after reporting pwnage hole in elections site

Re: Want to help the victim? Or learn more about the subject?

"Dan, it's illegal to enter other people's networks without permission"

Of course. But the problem is what consists of "enter[ing] other people's networks without permission".

You read this piece of news which is stored on a computer in a network of (presumably) El Reg. Did you have their permission to enter the network? You assume you did. Bit was it explicitly given?

It may seem a nonsensical splitting the hair but the difference between reading an article, especially if it is dynamically created from a database, and making an SQL injection is just sending a different HTTP request. So if one is "enter[ing] other people's networks without permission" and the other isn't, where is the difference? I'll tell you. The difference in in the intentions. So one has to ask what were the intentions of the arrested person. And, in my opinion, he has a good case, here.

Sayonara, Brits! The Irish tech sector could benefit from Brexit

Brexited UK would start to crumble

Scotland would most certainly have another independence referendum, this time on a "Let's stay in Europe" platform. Good luck with that, England.

There's more. Ireland would be divided by a real border for the first time in recent history. The pressure to reunite the island would grow.

An England + Wales rump of the "United" Kingdom would be a sad monument of Cameron's failure.

Stop resetting your passwords, says UK govt's spy network

One word passwords

I agree with the advice of not making people change the complicated password every month or quarter. The will never be able to remember which is the actual one.

However simple one word passwords are too easy to break. Long ago I used a large library of words to test passwords in the company. I broke about 1/3 of them within an hour. I still remember one of them. I'll tell you why.

The afternoon after this exercise I traveled with some guys from the company to a conference. I told them what I did and one of then, a Russian answered that his password is unbreakable because it is a Russian word written in Latin characters. I simply said "korova" (I still remember it means a cow) and he instantaneously went white. I still don't know what he kept on his account but he absolutely freaked out.

I heard not long ago the sad news that the guy passed away back in Russia. Whatever files he had, he was a friend.

New Firefox versions will make you activate all new add-ons – except one hacker favourite

Re: Flash gets a stay of execution...

Firefox does not install Flash on your computer. You need to do that separately and I have good news for you:

You do not need to install Adobe Flash at all! And even if you do, you can still block it within Fiefox. It's not difficult.

So why hate Firefox?

Adobe Reader update

In other news...

...night follows the day.

US data suggests Windows 10 adoption in business is slowing

Microsoft has still to explain what comes after the free 12 months

What happened to plans of "Windows as a service"? Are they dead or does Redmont wait for the trap to be ready?

Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware storms live TV weather forecast

Flash!

The Reg advices us to get rid of this bug infested spawn.

Months later it serves us video in the obsolete format.

How come?!

Windows 10 Mobile races to summer with useful facelift

What happened?

I've seen an ad of Lumia 650 with no tiles at all. Has Windows 10 changed that much or is it just marketing?

Flying Spaghetti Monster is not God, rules mortal judge

Next time they'll tell us Jedi is not a religion!

Actually I count as a Christian. However, I feel uneasy with judges ruling what is a religion. This is the first step down a very slippery slope...

Microsoft: We have a bullet ready for 12 competencies

Trust broken beyond repair

Just in case I've hidden a Windows 7 patch allegedly changing time zones in some obscure parts of Russia. It has no relevance for me and there is always chance it will try to push Windows 10 up my virtual hole just because it can.

Saturn spacecraft immune to mysterious Planet 9's charms

Plan 9 from outer space

Detecting the influence of Planet 9 should be called Plan 9, shouldn't it?

Hubble spies supermassive black hole in surprising spot

Re: Some light on the black hole

From the abstract of the paper:

Here we report observations of the stellar velocity distribution in the galaxy NGC 1600—a relatively isolated elliptical galaxy near the centre of a galaxy group at a distance of 64 megaparsecs from Earth. We use orbit superposition models to determine that the black hole at the centre of NGC 1600 has a mass of 17 billion solar masses. The spatial distribution of stars near the centre of NGC 1600 is rather diffuse. We find that the region of depleted stellar density in the cores of massive elliptical galaxies extends over the same radius as the gravitational sphere of influence of the central black holes, and interpret this as the dynamical imprint of the black holes.

So it seems this is not a corn field but rather a post-industrial decaying city with an old skyscraper in the center. With the difference that real skyscrapers do not eat the downtowns...

Space archeologist discovers new evidence of Vikings invading America

The news of clashes with indigenous people do exist

The Vinland saga describes many clashes in detail. In fact they were were describe to explain why the exploration of Vineland had been abandoned. A short resume from the Wikipedia "Vineland" article:

"One morning they see nine hide boats; the local people (Skraelings) examine the Norse ships and depart in peace. Later a much larger flotilla of boats arrives, and trade commences (Karlsefni forbids the sale of weapons). One day, the local traders are frightened by the sudden arrival of the Greenlanders' bull, and they stay away for three weeks. They then attack in force, but the explorers manage to survive with only minor casualties by retreating inland to a defensive position a short distance from their camp. Pregnancy slows Freydis down, so she picks up the sword of a fallen companion and brandishes it against her bare breast, scaring the attackers into withdrawal. One of the local people picks up an iron axe, tries it, and throws it away. The explorers subsequently abandon the southern camp and sail back to Straumsfjord, killing five natives they encounter on the way, lying asleep in hide sacks."

There should be a movie about this. Especially the part where Freydis, daughter of Eric the Red, goes berserk and topless at the same time. Good Hollywood stuff!

Astronomers find first neutron star in Andromeda galaxy

Re: "The star spins once every 1.2 seconds and the star it feasts on orbits it every 1.3 days."

Now if we just had some way off this rock that didn't take lifetimes to get anywhere near another star, let alone another galaxy.

C'mon this cannot be too difficult. It's not rocket science!

We wrap our claws around latest pre-Build Windows 10 preview

Re: stupid windows 10

>> The correct solution, it seems, is to roll back to Windows 7 <<

Insert full stop here.

It seems the Tay bot has not been erased

Its new version has been unleashed onto this site to promote Windows 10.

Glum, depressed ... and addicted to Facebook, Twitter? There's a link, say medical eggheads

Re: Clinical

"An unnatural attraction to avine scavengers?"

And what do you do if you feel an unnatural attraction to (force sensitive) female scavengers?

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

Is there a blessing for Windows 10?

Just like in the case of the tsar in Fiddler on the Roof, there is a proper blessing:

May God bless and keep Windows 10. . . far away from us!

Microsoft did Nazi that coming: Teen girl chatbot turns into Hitler-loving sex troll in hours

It seems the bot passed the Turing test!

At least if you agree that the Twitter users fit the definitions of humans.

Adobe will track you across all your devices with new co-op project

No Adobe here

This one year old laptop has never been infected by an Adobe product. I never needed Java and luckily one year ago most Web pages I use stopped demanding Flash.

And yes, I use Foxit for PDFs (and think about switching to Sumatra).

You'll say I'm being track anyway by Microsoft. Maybe but this is a Windows 7 box with all the known tracking updates blocked.

Microsoft stops accepting Bitcoin in Windows Store

Re: Illegal in Russia?

Knowing Russia, the reason they banned it is they could not figure who should be shaken down.

Steve Ballmer: Get the Facts. I 'love' SQL Server on Linux

"in the rear-view mirror"

Like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park?

The only difference is that Microsoft is driving in reverse gear.

And remember: Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear,

Microsoft adds 'non-security updates' to security patches

What happens in August?

I wonder what happens when Windows 10 stops being free. Will Redmont still try to shove it up my ass?

Until today I thought the nagging will stop in August but now I have doubts. Maybe they will lengthen the free period for "late upgraders"? Like one or two extra months. Because it would be next to impossible to force me to an upgrade which wants your Credit Card number to bill me? Or maybe I'm naive here?

Re: As many PC users think IE is the Internet...

What kind of free market is it when it's next to impossible to buy a PC without paying the Microsoft tax?