Posts by Patrician

How many days of carefree wiping do you have left before life starts to look genuinely apocalyptic? Let's find out

Re: Tips and Tricks

"Last but not least we have stock"

It would appear that Tesco's do not, as my delivery today was sans toilet roll; out of stock.

UK Information Commissioner OKs use of phone data to track coronavirus spread

Have a beer for the Discworld reference

Admins beware! Microsoft gives heads-up for 'disruptive' changes to authentication in Office 365 email service

Re: Hmmmm....

Not great but still better than Outlook

Can AI-enhanced virtual sports presenters do the job? It's a big ask

Re: To be fair...

it depends on your definition of "smart" of course; it would need to be a really long range sensor for it to be considered a proximity sensor.

It's supposed to be "smart" because it "learns" from your routine, despite what ever schedule you setup; not really noticed any evidence that it has been doing this though.

Re: To be fair...

"Genuine question on geothinging: if you're halfway home and remember that you left something really important at the office and have to go back for it, does the smart heating system switch off again? Like a car that locks itself when you walk away from it?"

Can't speak for all "smart thermostats" but for the Nest (queue anti-Google boos and hisses) yes that's exactly what happened with mine when I tested if it would happen.

It turns on when it estimates I'm about 10 minutes from home; that said I can confuse it by calling in next door rather than walking in my house.

It's a Bing thing: Microsoft drops plans to shove unloved search engine down throats of unsuspecting enterprises

Re: Questions II?

There are algorithms associated with a search that generates a "profile" of the searcher apparently, so I suppose two people could get different results for the same search term in theory. Maybe.

Re: Questions II?

I've tried Big several times and the results just are not a relevant as Google; sorry but if what I'm looking for is on page four in Bing but page one in Google, guess which I'll use.

Who needs the A-Team or MacGyver when there's a techie with an SCSI cable?

Re: IDE not SCSI but the hack worked

Yep, been forced to do that quite a few times in years gone by.

Boris celebrates taking back control of Brexit Britain's immigration – with unlimited immigration program

Re: Good, good.

You've obviously done your research and come an informed decision on how you voted, however, based on the people I know that voted the same way, I don't believe there were many as diligent as you were for voting "leave", and were primarily driven by racism and xenophobia.

Re: Good, good.

"Is that paraphrased? It is possible they honestly dislike immigration in general but is it not a specific problem? Or did they say something like border control but you assume that means stop immigrants (that is a common misinterpretation)."

It is paraphrased to a degree because I refuse to use the same language that they did when asked; but we are talking about eight, different people all stating that their prime reason for voting Leave was "to stop all those <expletive> "immigrants" coming in and taking our housing stocks, using health services, taking peoples jobs and going on benefits.

The paraphrasing is the word in the parenthesise.

Re: Good, good.

Unfortunately, the majority of my friends, and for that matter family (three brothers), are leave supporters (yeah, maybe I need new friends and family) and to a person, when asked why, stated "to stop the immigrants coming here" as a main reason.

Hard not to see racism as a main driver for the majority of leave voters when the ones that I know are all stating racist reasons.

Re: Good, good.

@codejunky

Considering that the major reason given for brexit was to stop Johnny Foreigner sullying this sceptered isle how does it not show racism and xenophobia?

Re: Good, good.

"Smart people from anywhere in the world come here! "

Smart people from anywhere in the world *came* here! There's a lot less reason for them to carry on doing so now.

Re: Good, good.

"unskilled laborers and people looking for handouts"

So, all unskilled workers are "looking for handouts" in your opinion, not just looking for employment to improve their lives?

Re: Good, good.

As the article points out, the type of people that the government is trying to attract with this policy are the type of people that will be able to take their choice of country in which to work.

Why in the name of all that's holy would they chose to work in a country that has proven to be racist, xenophobic and isolationist like the UK is now?

Ubisoft sues handful of gamers for DDoSing Rainbow Six: Siege

Re: "the number of attacks has dropped by 93 per cent"

What games have "paywalls" that prevent you from "playing and/or get the required stats to progress"?

I'm no expert on Ubisoft game but have/do play a few "free to play" games and they are all fully playable with no payments. Planetside II, Aion and Lord of The Rings Online mainly, and it's perfectly feasible to play all three without paying anything, albeit it might require a bit of grinding in the case of LoTRO; you, pretty much, have to do every quest, task and achievement in each area to be able to use in game currency to buy access to the next area.

But none of the above have any "paywalls" that stop you from playing, just your time.

Americans should have strong privacy-protecting encryption ...that the Feds and cops can break, say senators

Re: The mind boggles

"Why is it always the idiots who have no clue how things work that demand that those who do understand "find a way"?"

Simply because they are ignorant of how encryption works, what it is and why it's used. To them it's something implemented by a tech company, say Apple, so Apple must have control of it and if so, can un-encrypt at their whim.

No wonder Bezos wants to move industry into orbit: In space, no one can hear you* scream

Re: Not a new idea

"Quite apart from which, moving like locusts to another place because we're wrecking Earth will likely result in us wrecking that as well, as it's the attitude that needs changing, not the place".

You can't really wreck space, it's a little too big .....

OPPO's Reno 2, aka 'Baby Shark', joins the deepening pool of high-spec midranger mobes

The Android "skin" and installed bloatware is a deal breaker for me; I have a OnePlus 6T and their "skin" is pretty minimal thankfully, but I wouldn't want anything more intrusive than that.

I discovered the world's last video rental kiosk and it would make a great spaceship

"Additonally you can see a movie without leaving a history in the amazon profile"

And leave one with the company that owns the kiosk instead

You rang? Windows 10 gets ever cosier with Android, unleashes Calls on Insiders

Re: Only have one thing to say to Lenovo....

Okay, what games do you play then run natively in Linux? This isn't a challenge, I am really interested, because when I looked into this, the majority of the games in my library are not supported under Linux without messing around with a "wrapper" type tool such as Wine.

Re: Only have one thing to say to Lenovo....

In what way is this "untrue"?

Try playing Mass Effect <any of them> any Bethesda game for instance; yes there are games developed for Linux but, your options are not as open as to what games you can play as they are with Windows.

Re: Only have one thing to say to Lenovo....

Unfortunately if you want to do some gaming on your PC as well as home/office/email/web, any distro of Linux is pretty much a non-starter at this time.

'We go back to the Moon to stay': Apollo vets not too chuffed with NASA's new rush to the regolith

"Which is still questionable to this day"

No. it's not "questionable" if you understood the engineering and science; have a read here:-

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

Good news: Microsoft is doubling your OneDrive storage for more than double your money

Re: "And if your house burns down?"

Agreed; my docs and photo's are stored on my server, backed up to rotated USB drives, and then synchronised via Onedrive between my PC and my server (I don't have my gaming PC setup on my domain). That Onedrive account is synchronised back down to a Synolgy NAS that synchronises those same docs and photo's back up to a "Box" a "Google Drive" and a "Mega" account (all free). The NAS is running RAID 5 that is also backed up to two external USB drives that are rotated monthly with the offline drive kept in my works firesafe. Photo's have an addition backup in that they are also synchronised back to a different location, to the docs and photo's, via Plex Camera Sync system.

Paranoid, me? Never...

The time a Commodore CDTV disc proved its worth as something other than a coaster

Re: hmm

Had a customer that was moving house and wanted to work from home for a few days while this was happening; no problem, VPN and RDS setup on laptop and tested and working.

On the following Monday, after the weekend, we receive an irate phone call from said customer complaining that the VPN/RDS wouldn't work. A few minutes into the call the customer states "we don't have the internet connected yet"! Apparently, "nobody told her that a VPN and RDS solution requires an working internet connection".

Admittedly we didn't think to ask that question ......

Storied veteran Spitfire slapped with chrome paint job takes off on round-the-world jaunt

Re: harmonising the guns

Spitfire and Hurricanes were fitted with about 15 seconds worth of ammunition.

BOFH: Oh, go on, let's flush all that legacy tech down the toilet

Re: "an ongoing revenue stream"

Have a beer for the Disc World reference

People of Britain: You know that you're not locked into using the same ISP forever, right?

Re: move to a better deal

Same choice here, decent Virgin Media connection, but expensive and increasing yearly or ADSL+ with crap speeds. So, no choice really.

Silly money: Before you chuck your chequebook away, triple-check that super-handy digital coin

Re: "The age of digital money has arrived"

I was married and at that time it was pointless having a wallet, there was never anything in it.

Re: "The age of digital money has arrived"

I'm the opposite again, if I have cash in my wallet it will be spent, on this and that, but I'll not have a clue on what by the time it has gone. On card I know exactly what I've spent and where and, as its not cash a disincentive to spend. Works for me.

Apollo 11 @ 50: The long shadow of the flag

Re: The most expensive conspiracy theory in history

No it's not, it's the same as all the other shadows and is in alignment with the astronauts shadow, therefore cannot be seen as a separate shadow.

Re: The most expensive dick swinging contest in history

The only reason you think this is because you have no understanding of the science and engineering involved.

Landing on the Moon is relatively simple newtonion mechanics, the calculations for which can be done on a pocket calculator; you just have to have an understanding of maths.

Newton's three laws of motion are as follows:

1. An object remains at rest or moves in a straight line at a constant speed unless acted upon by a nonzero total force.

2. A force acting on a body causes it to accelerate (change its state of motion) to a degree that is proportional to the body's mass. Stated as an equation, writing F for force, m for mass, and a for acceleration, we have F = ma. In

Other words, an object's velocity and momentum changes with time in proportion to the force acting on it.

3. Forces occur in pairs pointing in opposite directions.

(This law is most often stated as: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, when a gun fires, the force acting on the bullet as it accelerates through the barrel is equal to the recoil of the gun acting on the shooter's hand or shoulder.)

The fourth basic law of Newtonian physics is the law of universal gravity: F = Gm 1 / r 2 m 2. Here F is gravitational pull, G is the universal gravitational constant (a fixed number, G = 6.6742 × 10 -11 m 3 kg -1 s -2), m 1 is the mass of one object, m 2 is the mass of the other object, and r is the distance between the centers of the two objects. Larger masses mean larger gravitational force,

Google's Fuchsia OS Flutters into view: We're just trying out some new concepts, claims exec

Re: Accurate Ads

Yes, I used the bargain site to give me a list of hotels in the area of London I wanted to stay and then did a Google search to find the websites of the ones I was interested in. I compared prices and booked directly with the hotel, as it was around 10% cheaper than the bargain sites for the same stay. Doesn't everyone do this, or do people assume that because the sites claim tom be "bargains", that they are without verifying that?

And there you have it; as I said, targeted advertising does not, nor can it ever, work in any way that is remotely useful unless you act like an unthinking idiot and just book at the first site you come to.

Re: Accurate Ads

From an end user perspective, targeted advertising simply does not work, for example:-

I booked a hotel for a weekend in London, I chose the hotel in Last Minute but went straight to the hotel's website to book it as it's very often cheaper than the "bargain" sites.

From that point for the next three or four months, on any site that served targeted ads, I received an advertisement for the hotel that I'd just booked, for the same weekend I'd booked.

Now if targeted advertising actually wanted to be useful the ads I'd have seen would be for events and/or offers on in London over the weekend I'd booked. For example, £5 off Tower of London entry or a advertising a food festival in Greenwich (this was on at the time).

Targeted advertising just doesn't work in any useful way.

Finally in the UK: Apollo 11 lands... in a cinema near you

Re: Amazing...

Why are you so ready to accept what is written on conspiracy websites and YouTube videos but not to accept scientific sites? Is it that you simply don't understand the science, and so reject it for something "else"?

Re: Amazing...

Typical conspiracy theorist; counter with another conspiracy theory .....

Re: Amazing...

Oh dear, just who doesn't understand?

It's the *isotope ratios* in the gases found in Luna rocks that is different from isotope ratios found in gases in rocks found on Earth that demonstrate the Luna rocks exposure to the Solar Wind; not the gases themselves, but the *isotope ratios found in those gases*.

Re: Amazing...

"A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful actors, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable. The term has a pejorative connotation, implying that the appeal to a conspiracy is based on prejudice or insufficient evidence. Conspiracy theories resist falsification and are reinforced by circular reasoning: both evidence against the conspiracy and an absence of evidence for it, are re-interpreted as evidence of its truth, and the conspiracy becomes a matter of faith rather than proof.

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

Re: Amazing...

This part of my post, opposes your post:-

"The solar wind is a continuous stream of charged, highly energetic particles originating at the Sun and moving out in all directions. The gases found in lunar samples match the isotope ratios expected for gas from this source, and are significantly different to isotope ratios found on Earth."

Re: Amazing...

There are quite a few other differences that would make this unlikely to be successful, however, geology isn't my subject so I could be wrong.

"While most of the minerals in Moon rocks are found on Earth, they were formed in very different environments. Moon rock shows evidence of formation in an extremely dry setting, with low gravitational influence and very little surrounding oxygen.

This is completely opposed to the Earth’s environment at the time of formation, approximately between three and four and a half billion years ago. Lunar rocks also contain trapped gases from the solar wind passing them at the time of formation.

The solar wind is a continuous stream of charged, highly energetic particles originating at the Sun and moving out in all directions. The gases found in lunar samples match the isotope ratios expected for gas from this source, and are significantly different to isotope ratios found on Earth.

Overall there are many differences between Moon rock and Earth rock; some were expected but others were great discoveries made by investigating the samples brought back from the Apollo missions."

From https://www.spaceanswers.com/q-and-a/how-different-is-moon-rock-and-earth-rock/

Re: Amazing...

Wow! Want to bring in Atlantis, Flat Earth, Hollow Earth and The Bermuda Triangle into this too?

Re: Amazing...

Nicely put Lee.

Re: Amazing...

Ignoring the rest of your post for the moment, this part ... "In addition, their lift-off is hilarious. They couldn't fire anything like boosters in a studio, so they just pulled it up and sped up the film. Nobody would've survived those Gs. Plain out sidesplitting!" ...Is side splitting.

You've calculated the rate of assent from the film presumably? You would have to, to be able to state that they couldn't "survive those G's". So what G's have you calculated they would have been subject to?

More households invite creepy smart speakers indoors: Arch-slurper Google top dog for Q1

Re: Er, actually...

That was the home security and alarm system Nest Secure, not the Nest Thermostat; there is no microphone in the thermostat.

"Google confirms with Business Insider that there's no microphone in any of its flagship Nest Learning Thermostat product line "

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-nest-products-with-microphones-2019-2?r=US&IR=T

Curioser and curioser: Little Mars rover sniffs out highest ever levels of methane

There are plentiful sources of oxygen on Mars, held within the rocks and within the sub-surface, and surface, ice for instance.

Delicious irony: Hacked medical debt collector AMCA files for bankruptcy protection from debt collectors

Re: debt vs dead

US Citizen ends up dead if they have no money and no insurance.

The UK citizen gets free treatment at source; I'm sorry about you mum but your experience isn't mine by any stretch of the imagination.

1. My mother, diagnosed with bowel cancer Jan 2000 - starts treatment before end of same month.

2. Friends father, diagnosed with stomach cancer May 2012 - starts treatment May 2012

3. Neighbours daughter, diagnosed with breast cancer December 2016 - starts treatment December 2016

Unfortunately my mothers cancer was too far advanced to respond to treatment and she passed away the next year, but the other two are still in remission.

I know that sometimes things go wrong in the NHS but it's still way better than the US system.

Alexa, are you profiting from the illegal storage and analysis of kids' voice commands?

But that not the same thing; you've already said the trigger word so I would expect the device to be "listening" after doing so. But the proposal above, that Alexa starts recording before the trigger words is spoken, on the off change that it will be spoken at some point in the very near future seems, to me, to be improbable.

"Alexa record a bit before the keyword - and Amazon submitted a new patent last week, where Alexa will send several seconds of voice to the mother-ship before the keyword is spoken (presumably for "what is the weather outside, Alexa?")."

How would the device know when to start recording? It couldn't "know" that the trigger word would be coming eventually, unless Amazon have developed a working prophecy algorithm; so I'm sorry but I don't see how this could be working in the real world as it were?

Flight Simulator 2020: Exciting new ride or a doomed tailspin in a crowded market?

Re: Microsoft Train Simulator

You wish has been granted:-

https://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/Train_Simulator_2019/