Why so snide?
Para 10:
"This extends to self-reconfiguration in orbit, if the report can be believed,..."
The "if the report can be believed" seems a bit unnecessary, even for El Reg
Posts by Champ
162 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Feb 2013
Boffins say their protective satellite paint job could harvest power from the Sun
This is the end, Windows 7 and 8 friends: Microsoft drops support this week
Tuesday 10th January 2023 23:49 GMT
Sticking with Media Center
Under my telly is the PC I built 10 years ago, in a hifi style case, which records TV for me, has all my music, a library of 100s of films, etc
I'm probably one of the last hold outs still running media centre, but I like it and there's no obvious replacement that does everything I want, so I'll be sticking with it, and Windows 7, for a while yet
UK's Guardian newspaper breaks news of ransomware attack on itself
Why would a keyboard pack a GPU and run Unreal Engine? To show animations beneath the clear keys, natch
Twitter begs some staff to come back, says they were laid off accidentally
US Army drone crashes hours ahead of breaking flight duration record
Get over it: Microsoft is a Linux and open source company these days
Thursday 14th July 2022 07:01 GMT
Just looked in...
...to check out how many dinosaur "of course Micro$oft is evil" posts, and wasn't disappointed
I worked them for a few years in the SatNad era, and they're just another big corporate. No evil to be seen
I'm way way more suspicious, and in some cases genuinely scared, of Amazon and Facebook nowadays.
Microsoft, Apple, Google accelerate push to eliminate passwords
Wednesday 11th May 2022 12:52 GMT
Yes, I re-use my password - what of it
There are a gazillion shitty websites that I've had to create an account on over the last 20+ years. Of course I'm not going to use a different password for each [1]. On precisely none of these do I care if my details get hacked. Say the crims find I bought some questionable furniture from Ikea last year - so what? Even sites that persist credit card details still need the CVV to complete the txn.
For anyone with any sort of online life, the only options seem to be password re-use, or use a password manager [2]
[1] and, yes, I have tried password managers. Haven't found one that gives me a compelling use case yet
[2] see [1]
UK space firm Skyrora opens rocket testing site in Scotland
Windows 11 Paint: Oh look – rounded corners. And it is prettier... but slightly worse
Intel's €80bn European chip plant investment plan not bound for UK because Brexit
Thursday 7th October 2021 12:06 GMT
Re: Deal done
Can you list any of these "rafts of EU bureaucracy and Brussels red tape", please? Compared to the now well-understood red tape involved in shipping anything from the UK to the EU?
It's not unusual for large multi-nationals to seek subsidies to set up in a particular jurisdiction. If the UK were still in the EU, it might well have benefited from such an EU subsidy for Intel to build a fab in the UK
Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima's exclusion zone
Judge denies Parler an injunction to force AWS to host the antisocial network for internet outcasts
Friday 22nd January 2021 06:30 GMT
Re: Another snowflake
>I, like the OP above am getting a little wary of what's >happening to the El Reg, it has never been so impartial... >And that means it is becoming an echo chamber, just like >Twitter, Parler and FB....
You might want to check the meaning of impartial, before you make yourself look silly
Google to pull plug on Play Music, its streaming service that couldn't beat Spotify, in favour of YouTube Music
Thursday 6th August 2020 10:16 GMT
YouTube Music is not available in your area
Looks like I'm not going to be migrating my music to YouTube, then...
I found Play Music very convenient; I ripped new CDs I bought [1] my CDs via a desktop to my NAS, and then uploaded them to Play Music, which made them available on my phone and other portable devices. And I could 'pin' favourite albums to the phone, so could play them when I had no connection.
<sigh> So now more research and tech implementation required
[1] I'm definitely of the generation that buys, not rents, its music. Spotify? Fuck off
The incumbent President of the United States of America ran now-banned Facebook ads loaded with Nazi references
The girl with the dragnet tattoo: How a TV news clip, Insta snaps, a glimpse of a tat and a T-shirt sold on Etsy led FBI to alleged cop car arsonist
Repair store faces hefty legal bill after losing David and Goliath fight with Apple over replacement iPhone screens
PC owners borg into the most powerful computer the world has ever known – all in the search for coronavirus cure
Your Agile-built IT platform was 'terrible', Co-Op Insurance chief complained to High Court
Tuesday 24th March 2020 11:18 GMT
Re: Erm
As in this feature, Agile is mostly the current whipping boy for stuff going wrong.
Firstly, "Agile" is a catch-all term for multiple working practices. These can be used brilliantly to deliver high quality, useful systems. But they are no guarantee, and you can definitely produce garbage with them too.
If this project had been run under Prince 2, would anyone be blaming the methodology?
Brexit Britain changes its mind, says non, nein, no to Europe's unified patent court – potentially sealing its fate
Australia down for scheduled maintenance: No talking to Voyager 2 for 11 months
Uncle Sam's nuke-stockpile-simulating souped-super El Capitan set to hit TWO exa-FLOPS, take crown as world's fastest machine in 2023
Open-source, cross-platform and people seem to like it: PowerShell 7 has landed
Thursday 5th March 2020 11:46 GMT
Re: Who are you and what have you done with Microsoft?
>But Microsoft isn't a normal company. All evidence suggests they haven't listened to what their customers actually want[0] in a couple of decades.
As a former Microsoftie, I really marvel at comments like this. In 35 years in the industry, with 3 at Microsoft, I never worked *anywhere* that paid half as much attention to its customers and what they wanted than Microsoft.
But, I guess it's easier to just keep slagging off the old big bad wolf rather than realise the world might have turned a little.
In case you wanna launch your boss into the Sun, good news: Earth's largest solar telescope just checked and, yeah, it's still pretty fiery
IT contractor has £240k bill torn up after IR35 win against UK taxman
Scientist, war hero and gay icon Alan Turing is new face of the £50 note
Brexit: Digital border possible for Irish backstop woes, UK MPs told
Thursday 27th June 2019 12:07 GMT
Re: "if Europe agrees to a Brexit transition period"
Where "Leave win #1" was a pretty finely balanced 52:48
Where "Leave win #2" was the UK electorate gaming the UKs FPTP electoral system to deny May the very mandate she went to the country to seek.
Where "Leave win #3" resulted in Remain advocating parties getting a bigger share of the popular vote than Farage the Fascist.
How's those lessons in counting coming along?
I am just a mapper: Solar drones take to the skies above Blighty
Treaty of Roam: No-deal Brexit mobile bill shock
Friday 8th February 2019 12:45 GMT
Re: So predictable !
Of all the places for the "technological means" unicorn to rear it's head - not the Reg! Nooo! Here the forums are full of people who actually understand IT, and what it can, and more importantly, can't do.
I'm now very depressed that even here, amongst "my people", someone should seriously promote this nonsense
Congrats, Satya Nadella. In just five years, you've turned Microsoft from Neutral Evil to, er, merely True Neutral
Microsoft delivers a second preview of Visual Studio 2019 (a Redmond thing we actually like)
Influential cypherpunk and crypto-anarchist Tim May dies aged 67
Google internal revolt grows as search-engine Spartacuses prepare strike over China
ICO poised to fine Leave campaign and Arron Banks’ insurance biz £135,000
Wednesday 7th November 2018 12:53 GMT
Re: Will of the people my arse
>those who supported remain and the ever closer political union, with the
>ceding of sovereignty to un-elected officials
It's my experience that those who most play the 'but sovereignty!' card least understand it.
The only way to be completely sovereign is to be completely isolated. Like North Korea. Otherwise...
- want to join the WTO? Need to abide by rules, that limit sovereignty
- want to join the UN? Need to abide by rules, that limit sovereignty
- want an FTA with <country>? Need to abide by rules, that limit sovereignty
The EU is really about pooling sovereignty, not ceding it.
Goodnight Kepler! NASA scientists lay the exoplanet expert to rest as it runs out of fuel
Love Microsoft Teams? Love Linux? Then you won't love this
Friday 19th October 2018 09:07 GMT
Re: Teams is wonderful if you only talk to one team
You're definitely doing it wrong - it's a piece of the proverbial to engage with multiple teams in Teams.
The only bad thing about Teams is the name, giving rise to sentences like "I've set up a new team on Teams", "Is your team using Teams", etc
Take my advice: The only safe ID is a fake ID
HMRC rapped as Brexit looms and customs IT release slips again
Monday 8th October 2018 12:41 GMT
Re: no surprise
> Assuming (no evidence to support this, but it's a reasonable hypothesis) that most people that voted for Brexit agreed with the ideals put out at the time of the referendum, and which have been repeated continuously since then, Brexiteers voted to leave the single market and so end free movement.
I'd say your very first assumption is incorrect, and therefore invalidates the rest of your argument.
Many prominent brexiteers said that brexit didn't mean leaving the single market:
Daniel Hannan: "Nobody is talking about leaving the Single Market"
Farage: "Wouldn't it be awful to be like Norway?" (i.e. proposing that we would in fact be like Norway, who are in the Single Market)
Also, your argument is based on people following the logical conclusion of their thinking. Most people don't do that, most of the time.
We're doomed: Defra's having a cow over its Brexit IT preparations
Thursday 13th September 2018 09:02 GMT
Re: Omnishambles.
>THE EU has declared war on the UK, for daring to ask for more...And people had better work out which >side they are on before its too late.
More? We already had significant concessions and opt-outs
>We are witnessing the ugly side of realpolitik, The ugly side of the EU and the ugly side of the Deep State >as well.
Your tinfoil hat has slipped.
Pluto is more alive than Mars, huff physicists who are still not over dwarf planet's demotion
NASA's Kepler probe rouses from its slumber, up and running again
It walks, it talks, it falls over a bit. Windows 10 is three years old
Tuesday 17th July 2018 10:39 GMT
Re: "the Windows 7 hold-outs should finally feel able to make the upgrade"
> Not while there are features that disappear with the upgrade. I'm not the only person who
> uses Media Centre as a television
Well, yes. While I seem to be in the minority here, and quite like Win10 for desktop/tablet use, the machine I built 10 years ago which sits under the TV and runs all my home entertainment with Windows Media Center will be staying on Win7 for obvious reasons.
Done and dusted? Vast storm gobbles NASA's long-lived Mars robot
Microsoft commits: We're buying GitHub for $7.5 beeeeeeellion
UK.gov expected to quit controversial harvesting of schoolchildren's nationality data
Wednesday 11th April 2018 11:55 GMT
>> "So are we saying that anyone from anywhere in the world can come to the UK and get free healthcare >> and education?"
> Have you been to a UK inner city recently? - they are stuffed with Muslims and similar foreigners. This isn't exactly new news.
Seriously, who the fuck upvoted this rascist drivel?
Us? Reverse engineer HoloLens? No way, not us, nuh-uh – Magic Leap
Monday 5th March 2018 11:03 GMT
Re: 1st of March is the first day of March, not spring. Check back on the 21st.
Better tell the TV weather forecasters. They routinely quote 1st March as "start of meteorological spring", completely correctly, in my view.
This is the small hill I have been dying on for the past 20 years, and will continue to do so. "Spring", as referenced by the vast majority of people, is a meteorological, not astronomical concept, as are the other seasons. It makes absolutely no sense to say that summer *starts* on the longest day, or, for instance, winter starts just 4 days before Christmas.
If we're going to divide the calendar up into four seasons, then this correspondent is going to continue insist that they start on 1st March, 1st June, 1st September and 1st December.
<deep breath>
Ghost in the DCL shell: OpenVMS, touted as ultra reliable, had a local root hole for 30 years
Wednesday 7th February 2018 11:33 GMT
Re: Wasn't VMS...
> The pattern used for Windows NT. It was my understanding (I could be wrong though) that the head of VMS development went on to Microsoft to do Windows NT development.
Yes, this was the legendary Dave Cutler, referred to up there.
The other story is that W(indows) NT is one letter on from VMS (compare and contrast with HAL and IBM)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
