Posts by Tromos

Microsoft silently fixes security holes in Windows 10 – dumps Win 7, 8 out in the cold

Wake-up call

MS need to realise that many of the people running 7 just do not want 10 and if forced will go to Linux Mint or similar. Once they've gone, they've gone for good. They might not stick with the distro they initially choose or even switch to a totally different system, but the one certain thing is that they will never go back to Windows. I think most reg readers will know of one or more people who departed the MS camp when XP support ended, the same will happen soon with 7.

I've already migrated 75% of the way and I'm working to a target of fully switching over the next 15 months (except for one system running FSX which will be disconnected from the net).

Dumb bug of the week: Apple's macOS reveals your encrypted drive's password in the hint box

Re: Indian...

Looks more like cowboy coding to me.

Patch your Android, peeps, it has up to 14 nasty flaws to flog

Flaws affect Android 4.4 to the current version.

Good job I'm still on 3.2 then.

Life began after meteorites splashed into warm ponds of water, say astronomers

Why highlight meteorites?

The article mentions 2000kg containing carbon compounds, therefore somewhat less than 2000 depending on the percentage content. The meteoric contribution pales into total insignificance when compared with dust providing 60000000kg of carbon compounds annually.

Either the quoted figures are wrong or the seeding of life should be credited to interstellar dust rather than the headline's splashing meteorites.

In a surprise to no one, BT and TalkTalk top Ofcom's whinge-list

Regulator needs to damn well regulate.

Make the worst provider each quarter refund all customers 50% and the second worst 25% (and no hiking the prices to compensate). If that doesn't bring about some improvement, nothing will.

EasyJet: We'll have electric airliners within the next decade

I'm not buying one of those planes...

...unless it has replaceable batteries and an SD memory expansion slot.

Chairman Zuck ends would-be president Zuck's political career

Philanthropic efforts

The most philanthropic act he could engage in would be to shut down facebook.

Blame Canada? $5.7m IBM IT deal balloons to $185m thanks to 'an open bag of money'

Could have been worse.

'Over the past 18 months, "thousands" of employees have experienced problems including not being paid or getting less than they were owed.'

At least nobody seems to have experienced problems with getting more than they were owed?

Falling apart at the seamless: Inside Apple's LTE Watch fiasco

Dick Tracy style

I don't quite see where Tracy comes into it.

Manchester plod still running 1,500 Windows XP machines

Re: I still have two XP instances

100% XP compatibility.

Wake me up when Linux/wine can run Flight Simulator X properly. Until then, the MS partition on the disk is safe.

Mad scientist zaps himself to determine the power of electric eel shocks

960 Ohms

You can tell by the white, blue and brown bands on the eel.

Facebook fails in bid for streaming sports rights

Makes no difference...

...which of those two get IPL rights. I'll do without rather than use either of them.

Some positive news: LG, Hitachi, NEC charged $65m in li-ion battery price fixing shocker

65 Meeelions...

...should be enough to pay the lawyers in full and a compensation of 10 cents to each of the plaintiffs.

Ad blocking basically doesn't exist on mobile

Needs more work

"About 43 per cent of mobile display ad impressions are fraudulent"

Disappointing. We must aim to get this up to at least 98%.

Lottery-hacking sysadmin's unlucky number comes up: 25 years in the slammer

Way too harsh

25 years? Did the article miss out a few kidnappings/serious assaults/attempted murders/rapes/etc? Most of those don't get sentences that long. I hope he's paroled after about 5 to 7 years as that seems more than adequate punishment for the harm done.

German court reveals reason for Europe-wide patent system freeze

"a specific date for the decision is presently not foreseeable"

I think I can predict the date. Remind me. When is Batistelli's term up?

UK.gov to treat online abuse as seriously as IRL hate crime

Race, religion, sexuality, etc.

So it's still OK to have a right go at people who choose the wrong operating system or phone.

Ads regulator raps PC repair biz for massaging malware infection rates

Ditto

At least 6 Internet-facing machines running with Win 95 initially and on Win 7 today. No AV other than Microsoft Security Essentials. No viruses or malware ever activated in 22 years. That comes to over 30000 machine days, so it would require 10000 idiots downloading naked celebrity screensavers to get the claimed level of statistics. I don't for a moment doubt that there are ten thousand idiots out there, but I suspect there must be enough careful and savvy people around too that make the one per three days figure look almost as ridiculous as the wrath of the ASA. They'll probably just move to claiming 2 infections per week which is a different advert and will take the ASA over a month to respond to.

BT got stopped from claiming the most powerful Wi-Fi, so they've just moved to claiming the best coverage which is equally bollocks.

She's arrived! HMS Queen Lizzie enters Portsmouth Naval Base

iPad in two years time

He's right. Most people don't know what they'll be doing with it. They'll have replaced it with a proper doorstop well before then.

Samsung drops 128TB SSD and kinetic-type flash drive bombshells

My Compukit UK101 (circa 1980) took pairs of 2114 chips for each kilobyte of upgrade. At £4.50 apiece that came to £72 for just 8k. £9million for a gigabyte (not to mention the cost of a 5 volt 64000 Amp supply to power it!)

Flash fryers have burger problems: You can't keep adding layers

How many layers are too many?

From a quick glance at the photograph, I would say take out all the veggie layers and substitute bacon for three of them.

Uneasy rest the buttocks on the iron throne. Profits plunge 14% at Sky UK and Ireland

“We will continue to identify opportunities to reach new customers..."

Translation:

We'll see what's popular on free-to-air then snap it up exclusively and charge a packet for it.

Authorities go hard on coffee maker for stiff Viagra-powered brew

Iced coffee?

On a hot summer's day, there's nothing like an ice-cold fappe.

Google G Suite spotted erecting stiff member vetting tool

Google has also launched a recruitment tool called Hire

Google developers now starting work on Fire.

One-quarter of UK.gov IT projects at high risk of failure

OK, that'll be 25% at risk of failure and a further 60% where there is no risk, they'll definitely fail.

Brickbat unwraps in lap of crap Snapchat yap app technocrat brats after stock splat mishap

Peak register

You know, there is such a thing as trying TOO hard.

May the excessive force be with you: Chap cuffed after Star Trek v Star Wars row turns bloody

No contest

My vote for best goes to Bab5.

TfL, WTH is my bus? London, UK, looks up from its mobile

Re: timetables

www.londonbusroutes.net

Timetables and just about everything short of the driver's names.

Aren't printouts of the timetable displayed at bus stops?

In many cases, no. You often get times of first and last buses and then a frequency for a range of times such as '10:00 - 16:00 every 15-20 minutes'. Unless you actually caught a glimpse of the previous one disappearing down the road you've no idea if the next is along in a minute or you have a quarter of an hour or more to wait. The complex technology exists, I see no reason to restrict usage to necessities. Anything that can make life a little more pleasant helps.

Brit prosecutors ask IT suppliers to fight over £3 USB cable tender

Re: Not just restricted to governments

At a property of mine in Greece I had phone/broadband provided by OTE which was a government monopoly at the time. Shortly after some competition was allowed, I moved to one of the new providers. There was a matter of half a euro to be refunded for line rental as I made sure the cancellation would go through a couple of days before the next billing period. Was this refunded directly to my bank using the same mechanisms as the bill payments? No. I was invited to pop around to their headquarters with various proofs of identity and other paperwork, queue for probably hours and then receive a sum that wouldn't get a cup of coffee. Of course I didn't bother to go. Two months later another letter came with the exact same info. More than 12 years have elapsed and there have been 75 letters! I'd like to think I'm slowly bankrupting them a stamp at a time.

Re: And these are the guys negotiating Brexit ?

It's obvious that we'd, near as dammit, get the best deal by ordering Brexit from Amazon.

Brit teen accused of running malware factory and helpdesk for crims

@Doctor Syntax

Just like I usually read "Uniformed officer" as "Uninformed officer". It often makes more sense that way.

Google DeepMind trial failed to comply with data protection – ICO

My bad.

I was under the assumption that the very essence of data protection lay in keeping your data away from Google.

Virgin Media to close flagship Oxford St store in August

Presumably...

...the one-way fare to Mexico works out much cheaper than statutory redundancy.

Florida Man to be fined $1.25 per robocall... all 96 million of them

Good luck with collecting that fine.

How is it that fines that stand no earthly chance of being paid are handed out to individuals like this, yet when a massive corporate misbehaves it usually results in something that can come out of petty cash?

BT problems impact Department for Work and Pensions services

Child Maintenance Service

Have you tried switching it off then on again?

Now you can 'roam like at home' within the EU, but what's the catch?

The old sayings are the best...

Roam wasn't billed in a day.

BT's Ryan Reynolds helicopter Wi-Fi ads 'misleading', thunders ad watchdog

Directional?

Personally, I prefer a Wi\Fi setup that propagates signal outwards rather than upwards.

We're not saying we're living in a simulation but someone's simulated the universe in a computer

Wouldn't it be neat if...

...dark energy = dark matter times the speed of dark squared?

Event horizons around black holes do exist, say astroboffins

Promotion?

General Relativity has performed so well that I recommend promotion to Field Marshal Relativity.

Bitcoin exchange Coinbase crashes after Asian buying frenzy

"Legal tender"?

There's quite a difference between legal tender and simply legal. Somehow I don't see the local corner shop being compelled to accept Bitcoin for a packet of crisps for some time to come (if ever).

Huawei Honor 8 Pro: Makes iPhone 7 Plus look a bit crap

"Honor mini-site for full specs"

If those are indeed the full specs, I'm not impressed. No Wi-Fi or GPS? I assume it actually must have both of these but I went to the site to check if 5GHz Wi-Fi is supported and which GPS constellations are handled plus details of other sensors and found zilch. Can't even download a PDF manual for the device in case there is more information there. It does, however, offer a manual in Estonian for an earlier model. If the website is indicative of the support being offered, I'd look elsewhere.

Beeb hands £560m IT deal to Atos. Again

I concur

"The placement of the contract with Atos presents us with a series of opportunities and challenges which I am certain we can jointly deliver and overcome."

I see no problems with this. I'm sure they will overcome all opportunities and deliver a multitude of challenges.

Huge flying arse makes successful test flight

Re: the HMS Callipygean

But the popular vote will go with 'Arsy McBumface'.

Oh snap! UK Prime Minister Theresa May calls June election

Feeding children properly

I agree. But what to?

Apple nabs permit to experiment with self-driving iCars in Cali

Am I too late for a design patent for a car with rounded corners?

Bankers to get 1Gbps free Wi-Fi in City of London deal

"ran out of coke and hookers"

Typical spoilt banker. Anyone else would settle for Pepsi and a prop forward.

Why do GUIs jump around like a demented terrier while starting up? Am I on my own?

Re: BBC stupid Breaking news.

Block 'polling.bbc.co.uk'.

US visitors must hand over Twitter, Facebook handles by law – newbie Rep starts ball rolling

Re: But

I only have antisocial media accounts. This one being a prime example.

Brexploitation? Adobe gets creative with price hikes

Vote for Bugxit

Expunge every last trace of Adobe Software and rejoice in vastly improved system security.