* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

Pornhub walls off Utah in age-verification law protest

Mark 85

Re: Hmm

It really has nothing to do with parental responsibility. It has to do with "image" of the holier than thou politicos along with money, and control of the masses. Now if government actually practiced some ethics, then it would be a different story.

Mark 85

Re: I imagine Utah's most of lawmakers are happy about this outcome

It's pure politics and BS at it's worst here. Seems the far right is going after everything (except power, greed and maybe adult beverages... oh... and mistresses.) I'm not sure how this will all end up but things are a bit scary.

I'm reminded of an old curse.... "may you live in interesting times."

CEO sorry after telling staff to 'leave pity city' over bonuses

Mark 85

Pink Floyd was right....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U&ab_channel=mongchilde

Facebook puts a price on privacy for US users and it's not enough to buy a cup of coffee

Mark 85

Re: Pah

Sounds like the only people getting a decent payout from this class action are the lawyer

Has there ever been a class action where that wasn't the case?

Maybe it time to take the advice of Shakespear about what to do with lawyers?

Mark 85

Re: Blech

I'm waiting to hear the large sucking sound of more data be slurped up.

BOFH: We send a user to visit Kelvin – Keeper of the Batteries

Mark 85

Re: Keepers of...

30+ years ago stationery was invariably jealously guarded, even getting a new pen meant taking the old, empty, one back and proving it would no longer write. Notepads had to be filled, on both sides of every single page, before they'd issue a new one, so the chances of prising a battery out of them were slim in the extreme. Solar calculators (yes, it was that long ago) meant that at least one battery-hungry device was removed from the equipment list.

Ah yes.... had to return the empty pad and then pencils. Supply had a llittle wooden box that the pencil had to fit it. If it wasn't short enough, you didn't get a new one until it did. Every fall when schools started up again, the supplies were even more harshly guarded by cutting the hours the supply room was open. At it's peek, they would be open one day a week for a half day. Bean counters... meh.

The return of the classic Flying Toasters screensaver

Mark 85

Re: There is only one classic toaster!

There's a problem with putting it in the C-suite. The toaster is much smarter than they are. On second thought . it might be an improvement.

Scientists speak their brains: Please don’t call us boffins

Mark 85

Re: Icon alert!

We won't always have Paris, but perhaps a small reparation would be a new boffin icon. Gender ambiguous, naturally.

Sadly, the Paris icon has disappeared much like it's former masthead motto.

Mark 85

Re: Hmmm

Sadly, too many seem to look for something to take offense about. Seems the culture wars are more about attention than actually doing something to solve problems. I find the term "inclusive" to be somewhat ambiguous in that it leads to quotas. Such as "we need "X" numbers for this no matter how unqualified they might be." which I've actually seen some years ago whith some companies hiring less than qualified people to fill a quota.

People are strange critters and very tribal to say the least. <sigh>

Disclaimer... I'm old, I'm cranky.... now get off my lawn.

BOFH: The Board members are looking very ill these days

Mark 85

Re: Openings in forestry

don't need to make it wider as long as there's no actual coffin.

the human body is a wondrous thing, so soft and pliable... It'll fit...

Depends on if rigor mortis has set in or not.

Techie fired for inventing an acronym – and accidentally applying it to the boss

Mark 85

Re: Well that was unfortunate.

Exactly. She took something personal that was being used long before she started. I've met a few like her of both sexes.... clueless and looking to toss their power around.

Duelling techies debugged printer by testing the strength of electric shocks

Mark 85
Coat

Re: Obvious reply ...

I think that should be resisted.

That would be futile. Ah my coat is over there.

Mark 85

The capacity for punning here is shocking.

BOFH: The PFY has won an award … for outstanding service?

Mark 85

Re: Oh happy day

Excellent ideas for the future............I'm thinking one of those Boston dynamics robots with a ChatGPT system trained on how I interact with the staff and then set loose to solve the various production problems during the day....... although I may have to tell the staff to stay away from open windows and lift shafts when they interact with it..........

I think the one you want is the one with machine gun. That should solve many problems like phone calls a beer o'clock.

Mark 85

Re: Love it!

Gift? or Grift?

Yukon UFO could have cost unfortunate balloon fan $12

Mark 85

Re: Republicans have a lot to answer for

Politicians and balloons.... both are gas bags

A tip for content filter evaluators: erase the list of sites you tested, don't share them on 100 PCs

Mark 85

Re: A lot of El Reg Readers really are very old

I'm also amazed that people think reusing or making up licence keys in a business environment is acceptable but I guess that just confirms my opinion that they're incompetent.

Incompetent? Maybe. Cheap and not wanting to pay fees for a license? Definitely.

Microsoft's new AI BingBot berates users and can't get its facts straight

Mark 85

Re: Apparently it learns....

I think it's pretty certain someone hooked it up to Elon Musk's tweets..

Or a certainb ex-President of the US???

I seriously think it's mis-named.. should be "Dingbat."

Wow, so they actually let AI fly an F-16 fighter jet

Mark 85

Re: @Peter2 - The mass of the pilot was a considerable constraint...

Yeah, it would become like a drone so I don't understand why they bothered with an F-16 in the first place.

Testing maybe? Pilot being a failsafe? It probably won't be long and the need for a pilot will be removed.

Second Soyuz springs a leak, astronauts stuck on ISS for an extra month

Mark 85

Reminds of the line from Armageddon... "American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN! "

US defense forces no match for the unstoppable fiend known as Reply-All

Mark 85

Re: Ageism is alive and well...

Computers were invented in 2018 when somebody attached a keyboard to an iPad and so people over 30 obviously won't understand them

Say what??? I'm 75 and worked in IT for decades. I know others my age who have also. So we don't understand them????

US military spends weekend shooting down Useless Floating Objects

Mark 85

Re: Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said it "wasn't an aircraft per se"

I suspect it was a wrong choice of words. By "wasn't an aircraft per se", it would appear that it didn't have the common attributes of an airplane/aircraft like wings. To many folks those terms are interchangeable. A balloon is a type of aircraft but not an airplane. Nit-picky, I know.

What's up with IT, Doc? Rabbit hole reveals cause of outage

Mark 85

I always forget that speakers of other variants of English don't have understatement as a rhetorical device.

Some parts of the States are very well acquainted with the concept as some parts of the south refer to the Civil War as "the recent unpleasantness".

BOFH: Generating a report the Director can show the Board – THIS is what AI was made for

Mark 85

Re: Relocated

I'm Americasn and feel your sadness. Pity it has been moved as something has been lost... like maybe the "biting the hand".

No more rockstars, say Billy Idol, Joan Jett in Workday Super Bowl ad

Mark 85

Re: Rock star

It's interesting how besuited, Gucci-wearing so-called high-level executives want to be associated with what is commonly known as a depraved, drug and alcohol-filled lifestyle.

Maybe they have learned this from politicians? Or more likely, they themselves are also depraved, drug and alchohol filled but jealous that they don't the perks of being a a real rock star?

Reddit reveals security incident that looks more SNAFU than TIFU

Mark 85

Re: Yes, firing would be stupid.

Many bosses go with the old "show me someone who's never screwed up, I'll show someone who's never done anything." Usually, it's been one screw up is ok... we'll deal with it. The second.... not so much but with the background understanding... "Murphy and crap happens".

BOFH and the case of the Zoom call that never was

Mark 85

Re: We have some of the old projectors still hanging there..

As for the projectors, they definitely should be hanging from the ceiling and with quick release latches. Consider adding the remote control switch for them. Accidents do happen.....

Mentally scarred: Kenyan workers taught ChatGPT to recognize offensive text

Mark 85

Maybe there should be laws that ensure e.g. US company pays US wages regardless where they hire their workers.

Not a bad idea but what about goods that everyone buys that are made in low wage countries? Such as furniture, appliances and cars? Think of all the stuff made in China that were outsourced by major corporations to "save money". Most people would not be able to afford them.

Here in the States food would be become very expensive if the farmers had to pay a livable wage to the seasonal workers.

I'm not saying that the paying a livable wage is bad but there would be consequences.

I was reasonable to ask to WFH in early days of COVID, says fired engineer

Mark 85

This doesn't look good for him.

The article doesn't mention it, but Massachusetts is an "at will state". This means basically anyone at anytime can be fired.

There's a longer explanation here: https://bdjobstoday.org/faq/what-does-at-will-employment-mean-in-massachusetts/ Or Google away as I just grabbed an article.

Sysadmin infected bank with 'alien virus' that sucked CPUs dry

Mark 85

Re: sitting idle means they are using less power

At least modern PCs / Servers when the CPU is idle they are using less power. Give them a heavy load then the power consumption goes up. So it's not actually "free" to give them something like seti@home to do. Also generates more heat therefore the cooling system has to work harder also drawing more power.

I'm totally surprised that the bean counters didn't notice the electric bills suddenly got higher and start an inquiry. Those folks seem to or should notice any increases in costs of just about everthing.

This is the end, Windows 7 and 8 friends: Microsoft drops support this week

Mark 85

Re: I'm OK with Chrome no longer being supported

The catch being ignored is that Edge is basically Chrome. Firefox will continue to be upgraded, for now anyway, to run on Win 7.

The other catch, and I may be wrong, is that if history repeats itself, the hackers will change to the latest and greatest (ahem) MS browser just because corporates will grab it if they havent already.

As it is, I'm headed to Linux with a Win 7 VM as I don't want to have buy "new" or "upgraded" software. Yes, I'm old and cranky. Now MS can get off my lawn.

Ex-GE engineer gets two years in prison after stealing turbine tech for China

Mark 85

Not Surprising

China has been slurping up as much tech as they can for their use for a long time. Everything from computers to cars to airplanes and even pirating other industries large and small. And yes they shoiuld have tossed the book at him as China would that to anyone "stealing" for any non-Chinese companies.

Japan lacks the expertise for renewed nuclear power after Fukushima

Mark 85

WWII made Japan very reluctant to do anything nuclear. They were starting to embrace it until the Fukushima disaster. Now they have to rebuild staff basically from the ground up.

Techies try to bypass damaged UPS, send 380V into air traffic system

Mark 85

Or maybe this just didn't get labeled as such. Holidays and all that.

Don't lock the datacenter door, said the boss. The builders need access and what could possibly go wrong?

Mark 85

Re: rebooting the system

Slightly off-topic, but when someone in my family is asked what they do for a living they say "I work in child care'

I think that might be a suitable response for anyone doing IT work of any sort. Users and manglement all seem to fit into that category. Most dreaded words in the IT world... "what's that button do? are usually spoken with their eyes filled with wonderment and malice.

BOFH and the office security access upgrade

Mark 85

Re: Ah, time management systems

What's the point of manually having to key it in every time?

Job security for a few people in HR. Power and control for management and also justifies having them.

Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO: Help us pick his replacement

Mark 85

Re: Ughhh...

Which is why we asked for other suggestions. C'mon!

We had best decide quickly as Musk resigned as Twatter CEO this morning.

When we asked how you crashed the system we wanted an explanation not a demonstration

Mark 85

Re: layout

First thing that strikes me is why are the links to other stories, infuriatingly dumped in the middle of the article like a clickbait site singles advert, headed "More context" ? To further ensure that people take longer to figure out they are not part of the story?

I've seen this in a lot places but usually with a heading like "In case you missed this". Usually though, it has recent articles.

Voice assistants failed because they serve their makers more than they help users

Mark 85

Re: "... they serve their makers more than they help users"

Alumoi said: "Why? Can't you pair the phone with the audio system in the car to make and answer calls?

I look at that as a distraction when I'm drivng. Having a conversation with another person in the car is one thing, but answer the phone, etc. to me is a distraction especially spam calls.

My sense about these devices is they're more like something from Orwell than something good.

BOFH: We're an industry leader … in employing idiot managers

Mark 85

Re: Old and tried methods

If you wait till it breaks, you do not know what you will get (second hand?) and disruption during the emergency.

Not to mention that you'll have to pay more since it requires the vendor to work on "out of budget" spending to react quickly. Vendors love "emergency" work.

Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home

Mark 85

What a choice. Three months' pay, for no effort (and a fairly high chance that you'll be able to find another similarly paying job well within that timescale), or, over the next three months, earn the same amount by doing six months' worth of work for an arsehole megalomaniac, if the company you work for doesn't go bankrupt in that time, with your wages left unpaid.

I note that FB is now doing huge layoffs. Seems to be contagious.

Mark 85

Re: I don't know

I don't know what exactly Musk's personal problem(s) is/are, but the window to sort them out and maybe still salvage Twitter is almost closed and rapidly shutting. I don't know if he's got some kind of personality disorder like bipolar, if it's some kind of drug abuse, if it's his narcissism has reached a critical inflection point, if it's something else, if it's some combination of the above or if it's even all of the above.

I'd say all the above. Numerous news articles have documented these. Is he a genius or just nuts? Both probably. He reminds me of certain politicians.

Personally, I would have been out the door pretty quick. He doesn't listen to anyone. At a former company that worked for (several actually), the owners all said they wanted people working for them that were smarter than they were. Musk is opposite. He thinks he's smarter than everyone else.

BOFH: Don't be nervous, Mr Consultant. Come right this way …

Mark 85

Re: Been there, done that

...since by doing so, I was weakening the business case for the new system!

Ah... someone's raises and bonus along with possibly some kickback from the vender were at risk.

Mark 85

Re: should we call time on the BoFH?

As a very long time reader of the BoFH (even before el Reg) I am wondering if its getting past time for the BoFH?

Blasphemy, sir. Sheer Blasphemy!!! Are you by perchance management?

Catching a falling rocket with a helicopter more complex than it sounds, says Rocket Lab

Mark 85

Would be a bit of snap back atter the bungee is fully stretched. I like that idea though.

Mark 85

I wonder about the logic/wisdom in this also. Seems the mass and speed would create a lot of problemss. Add to that there's a giant eggbeater over top of the chopper. SpaceX had problems getting the things to land on a bouncing ship.

I would think that maybe a deceleration burn that drops the fall speed to near zilch would be a key thing but then, if that were done, just set it down on a barg.

As a former aircrew on a chopper, you couldn't pay me enough to try to catch a falling rocket.

Porsche wants to sell you a rusty tailpipe soundbar for $12k

Mark 85

Re: As the saying goes....

"One born every minute."

I was thinking of "a fool and his money are soon parted". But yours is appropriate also.

NASA uses space station dust sensor to map 50 methane 'super-emitters' on Earth

Mark 85

So the real source is gasbags in Congress?

Mark 85
Flame

Re: It's unfortunate

Sounds like the cow what did quite a bit. Maybe attach a catalytic converter to their exhaust ports? Icon for flaming cows.

Microsoft's Windows 10 Patch Tuesday update crashes OneDrive

Mark 85

Re: Wot, no comments?

People have reached a further "E" milestone.

Exasperate.

Exasperated or they just expect this kind of thing. Ever since MS stopped testing updates it's just one disaster after another. I've basically told my friends and relatives that they are on their own as I'm retired and not willing to spend hours trying to solve MS's problems with their OS.