Posts by Patched Out

Someone made an AI that predicted gender from email addresses, usernames. It went about as well as expected

Yes, with only one race, "Human", they still would have gotten it wrong!

See you after the commercial breakdown: Cert expiry error message more entertaining than the usual advert tripe

Re: Red triangle programs

Funny you should mention that. I just re-watched that particular episode of BBC's "Sherlock".

51 years after humans first set foot on the Moon, a deepfaked Nixon mourns how Armstrong and Aldrin never made it home

Re: Alternative fakery

@AC: "We know they never went to the moon anyway, so what's the big deal?"

I sincerely hope you are kidding.

The Devil's in the details: Church of Satan forced to clarify that no unholy rituals taking place in SoCal forest

Re: Its in California where..........

Well if someone were to suggest that mountain lions and bears contain agents suspected of causing cancer ... (Ed., written only for humorous purposes, I say leave the mountain lions and bears alone)

LOL, we visited California a couple years ago and did get a chuckle out of those ridiculous Prop 65 signs everywhere. Even Disneyland has to have them posted. Maybe you could turn it into a tourist activity - find all the Prop 65 signs. Maybe make a Pokeman Go type of app to track them (once the pandemic has eased to a sane level, of course).

Fancy some fishy-chips? Just order one of these sensors: Research shines light on suspect component sources

Re: Not counterfeit, not stolen

The "DS" in DS18B20 is for Dallas Semiconductor, now Maxim.

The "NE" in NE555 is for Signetics, now part of Texas Instruments.

There is also an LM555 which is National Semiconductors' version, now part of Linear Technology Corp.

These are not generic part numbers.

From off-prem to just off: IBM Cloud goes down planet-wide so hard even the status page didn't work

Time to roll out my acronym again

C.L.O.U.D. - Customer Loses Own Use of Data

Smart fridges are cool, but after a few short years you could be stuck with a big frosty brick in the kitchen

Re: Never understood this

I can attest to this. I saw that sign at Disneyland as well and took a picture of it. Even coffee vendors in California have to have a Prop 65 warning sign.

Hoverbikes, Hyperloops and sub-orbital hijinks: Yes, the '3rd, 4th and 5th Dimensions of Travel' are coming soon

When we achieve the 5th Dimension in transportation

will we call it the Age of Aquarius?

Mine's the one with the flower power patches on it.

Man responsible for least popular iteration of Windows UI uses iPad Pro as a desktop*

I knew it!

This explains everything! Sinofsky was secretly working for Apple when he lead the development of the Windows 8 UI. How better to cripple your competitor!

COVID-19 sparks new wearables to push the pandemic away

Re: Lightsabers.

Electric cattle prod with extension handle works for me.

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

Borkmongers

Or variants:

Borkage Mongers

Purveyors of Borkage

Snapchat domain squatter loses comedy £1m URL sellback attempt

Re: Trademarks

Not to mention the trademark dispute between Apple Corps, the Beatles' record label, and Apple Computer. As I recall, the dispute was resolved when Apple Computer agreed not to have anything to do with creating, publishing, or distributing music.

Oh wait ...

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

Watch now the three UFO videos uncovered by Blink-182 star – and today officially released by the Pentagon

Roland Reagan was the president - In StargateSg7's alternate reality!

The black helicopter is for StargateSg7, because if what he said is true, he just revealed top secret information and they will be coming for him.

Upstart Americans brandish alligators at the almighty Reg Standards Soviet

Re: Remember...

To be perfectly accurate shouldn't this measurement be a prone Osman? Unless this fellow is very wide ... or is it with his arms stretched out?

Apple creates face shield for health workers, resists the temptation to call it the 'iMask'

Re: iMask was taken

Yes, but you need an Apple iGadget to read the assembly instructions. </SNARK>

Still waiting for your Atari retro gaming console? You're not alone: Its architect has just sued the biz for 'non-payment'

Atari VCS is an appropriate name for it

Venture Capital Scam

Real-time tragedy: Dumb deletion leaves librarian red-faced and fails to nix teenage kicks on the school network

Mandelbrot

I taught myself Turbo Pascal back in the early 90's using the book "Fractal Programming in Turbo Pascal". I created my own Mandelbrot set generating program, but because I only had a 286 computer without a co-processor, calculations could take days. When I created the program, I had the foresight to modify the header of the graphic format used to store the image to include all of the image generating parameters and an index of the last pixel calculated. If I had to shut off the computer before an image was complete, opening the image in my program at a later time would result in it restarting right where it left off.

Lobsters given seats on coronavirus rescue flights... although they're probably not in a rush for a boiling bath

Re: Haha that's not a lobster.. THIS is a lobster !

Paw. It doesn't even have claws! Now THIS is a proper, Maine Lobster:

https://www.wmtw.com/article/giant-lobster-claws-way-to-top-of-maine-restaurant/20150071

Tinfoil hat brigade switches brand allegiance to bog paper

DIY bidet installation kits

see title

Copper foil

It is well known that copper has natural anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. So I will be using copper.

.... No! On my head, you dolt!

Boeing didn't run end-to-end test on Calamity Capsule, DSCOVR up and running, and NASA buys a Falcon Heavy

Re: Separate component testing

Funny you should say that, because Boeing's earlier landing test of the capsule had an "anomaly" where 1 of the 3 parachutes failed to deploy. The test was deemed a success because the remaining two chutes successfully brought the capsule down without damage. It was later determined that “The root cause was a lack of secure connection between the pilot chute and the main chute lanyard,”

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/11/07/boeing-identifies-cause-of-chute-malfunction-continues-preps-for-first-starliner-launch/

Researchers trick Tesla into massively breaking the speed limit by sticking a 2-inch piece of electrical tape on a sign

Re: Is this a joke

Bedford, New Hampshire - the town speed limit is 35 MPH for most roads. Signs are on just about every road.

Actually, in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine, I have seen signs in every 5 MPH increment from 10 MPH up to 70 MPH.

Ring of fired: Amazon axes multiple workers who secretly snooped on netizens' surveillance camera footage

Re: Data not that innocuous

Even worse, Ring may have started with a video doorbell, but they also sell general security cameras which can be placed inside the home. There is no way I would own one.

The black helicopter icon is because commercial companies have more of them than the governments!

Re: Why did they do it?

Ring makes more than video door bells. They also make security cameras which could be viewing the inside of the home, obviously.

Re: Could be worse

You mean like a cell phone? Most houses have multiple.

Train-knackering software design blunder discovered after lightning sparked Thameslink megadelay

Re: Genuine question

I'm not a locomotive expert, but do know something about power electronics, so I'm going out on a limb here - the electrical motors that drive the wheels are like electrical transformers. As the AC frequency goes down, the current (amperage) goes up to deliver the same amount of power (electrical or motive power). It is probably a protective measure to keep the motors from burning out.

We live so fast I can't even finish this sent...

Pantone Classic Blue

Thank you for providing a color patch for Pantone Classic Blue and telling me this is what it looks like. Unfortunately since my monitor has not been calibrated or certified to properly present the color space required, I can only imagine what Pantone Classic Blue actually looks like.

Smart speaker maker Sonos takes heat for deliberately bricking older kit with 'Trade Up' plan

CD/Boombox upgrade

I can do you one better. I still have an AM/FM/Cassette boombox from around 1980 that I have "upgraded" by tapping into the cassette playback circuit with a 1/8" stereo jack with which I can plug in my MP3 Player / Tablet / Smartphone (sorry, no iPhones unless they still have a headphone jack).

All the cassette mechanics are removed except for the door, which makes a handy holder for the aforementioned music player of choice.

It works great. I also did this on my daughter's AM/FM/CD/Cassette boombox for her use.

We're so, so, sorry you're not able to get PC chips, says Intel to everyone who hasn't gone with AMD yet

AMD all the way!

In my 20+ years of building my own computers (and friends' and relatives' computers) I have always used AMD. I just couldn't justify the cost premium with Intel processors. The AMD processors have been rock solid. The only processor that I was ever not fully satisfied with was the FX 8350 which did not outperform the Athlon II x4 that it replaced. My latest build is a Ryzen 7 2600x which benchmarks at about twice the CPU score of the FX 8350. And yes, I am staking my claim for the AMD FX processor settlement ...

The Ryzen architecture is a real game changer.

If bigger seats and nicer nosh in British Airways' First Class still aren't enough, would sir like to wear some VR goggles?

The Puke-O-Matic

If some VR systems can cause motion sickness in a stationary room, how is this going to work on a moving aircraft?!?

Hell hath no fury like a radar engineer scorned

Re: Can this inform the 5G debate?

Just tell them that high levels of lead in their blood stream will help alleviate the long term effects of exposure to 5G frequencies.

Firm fat-fingered G Suite and deleted its data, so it escalated its support ticket to a lawsuit

C.L.O.U.D.

CLOUD => Customer Loses Own Use of Data

I get to re-post this every couple months on here. :-)

It's official. You can get FUCT, US Supremes tell scandalized bureaucrats in rude trademark spat

Re: Will it help?

Maybe it was meant to be agrarious - raising of the flock.

Vulture gets claws on Lego's latest Apollo nostalgia-fest

Got my Lunar Lander set for Father's Day

Built it over two nights within a week. Unfortunately my set was missing 3 black 2x4 plates used in the lunar base. But Lego got the missing parts out to me very quickly, so all is good.

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

Re: Microsoft Train Simulator

Not to get too off-topic, but owning both Train Simulator and Train Sim World, I can say the latter is more visually appealing, but has not seen large scale adoption from Train Simulator users, since TSW still does not support the RailDriver controller (despite multiple promises from Dovetail Games), which many hardcore TS enthusiasts own (including myself). So much so, that after having bought the core TSW game, many are vowing not to spend another cent (farthing, peso, etc.) on any add-ons until RailDriver support is provided. There are also serious problems with the game optimization that makes frame rates low on even fairly highly spec'd PC's that after over a year (2 years now?) Dovetail Games has still not addressed adequately.

Meanwhile they released a 64-bit update to Train Simulator 2019 as well as continued add-ons (which I continue to buy), so it is hard to say what their intentions are for continuing support of both simulators.

I'm being cautiously optimistic about this new MSFS2020, but hopefully MS learn from Dovetail's mistakes and provide advanced controller support from the get go. Supporting only an Xbox-style game controller is not going to fly (so to speak)!

Bad news. Asteroid 1999 KW4 flew by, did not hit Earth killing us all. Good news: Another one, Didymos, is on the way

Re: That is damn close

Don't blame the U.S., it was French mathematicians that changed the definition (at least according to Wikipedia). Except the French changed their minds and reverted back to the old definition in 1948. The U.S. just adopted the new definition and stuck with it.

IEEE says it may have gone about things the wrong Huawei, lifts ban after US govt clearance

This has all gotten Huawei out of hand

With mis-information, supposition and just poorly understood reporting, it is hard to know what's what in this whole Huawei situation anymore.

The U.S. Government originally banned Huawei and ZTE equipment for U.S. Government (i.e., DoD, FBI, other gov't agencies) use only, back in 2012 due to allegations and intelligence findings that the phones / telecoms equipment may have Chinese state-sponsored backdoors used for gathering intelligence. From a security perspective, I think it is reasonable and sensible to ban such devices for sensitive government use if or until the allegations can be disproved. These agencies need to err on security, regardless of whose equipment is under suspicion. This happened during the Obama administration, BTW, as a matter of perspective.

The current dispute has very little to do with the original alleged security issues and more to do with Huawei's more recent alleged behavior in regards IP infringement as well as violating sanctions against Iran. Trump's administration has not helped by conflating the original security concerns with these new allegations along with the current trade war.

IMO these articles (along with additional links in the articles) provide a fairly balanced background on the whole issue.

https://www.cnet.com/news/huawei-ban-full-timeline-on-how-and-why-its-phones-are-under-fire/

https://www.cnet.com/news/lawmakers-to-u-s-companies-dont-buy-huawei-zte/

https://www.cnet.com/news/how-a-torture-test-robot-figures-into-the-legal-assault-on-huawei/

Sex and drugs and auto-tune: What motivates a millennial perp?

Napolean's Razor?

In the living room, can Google Home hear you SCREAM? Well, that's what you'll need to do

Re: Do ray me

"I’ll ensure to continue sharing your feedback and once I have more intonation, updating this thread as well."

I think she is inferring that she is working on just the right pitch and inflection to shout at the engineers to properly convey the sentiments of the user forum.

EU lumbers towards Apple probe as Spotify cries foul over App Store's 30% cut

Can anyone tell me what this sentence is supposed to say?

"Not using Apple's payment service to dodge the charge limits the ways Spotify can contact its customers."

FYI: Yeah, the cops can force your finger onto a suspect's iPhone to see if it unlocks, says judge

Re: Am I the only one that ...

I got the impression the phones had already been confiscated as evidence and are sitting in an evidence locker somewhere. Therefore the lockout period has already elapsed.

The article does say "seized phones" right in the first paragraph ...

A double forehead-smack to you.

Am I the only one that ...

... noticed that the execution of this warrant will be pointless, since it will be taking place past the prescribed period where the Track ID will by itself unlock the phone(s)? They are going to need the password/PIN anyway.

Brit Watchkeeper drone fell in the sea because blocked sensor made algorithms flip out

Re: There is no "black box" on a Watchkeeper.

Also if crashed in hostile territory you don't want said hostiles to retrieve the black box, extract the info from it, and be able to reconstruct what this thing was up to...

Kent bloke incurs the anchor of local council after fly-tipping boat

I kayak abide any moor of these puns!

It was all Yellow: Mass email about a Coldplay CD breaks the internet

Re: music-for-people-who-don't-like-music

Not to mention that all dynamics that might make it mildly interesting are squeezed out of it, because, you know, loud songs are better.

BOFH: Tick tick BOOM. It's B-day! No we're not eating Brussels flouts...

Re: At least the windows open...

Guessing your company is easy - you must work for the same company that I do.

Spyware sneaks into 'million-ish' Asus PCs via poisoned software updates, says Kaspersky

Re: Nation-state operation

This would certainly help explain ASUS' complacency in providing notification of this issue so that owners of ASUS computers/motherboards could take steps to remove this.

As a long-time user of ASUS motherboards, I'm a little more than disturbed by their behavior after being notified by Kaspersky. Even though I don't use any of their auto-update tools, I will think twice before buying another motherboard from them.

Facebook blames 'server config change' for 14-hour outage. Someone run that through the universal liar translator

Who me?

I expect a Who Me? article to come out of this eventually.

UK joins growing list of territories to ban Boeing 737 Max flights as firm says patch incoming

Re: Panic

He lives in the same world as the FAA apparently ...

Hurrah for Apollo 9: It has been 50 years since 'nauts first took a Lunar Module out for a spin

First Man

Read and enjoyed the book. Did not like the movie. Neil Armstrong was portrayed as an overly serious, melancholy man, haunted by the death of his young daughter. Yes, the death of his daughter hit him hard, and yes, he was serious when it came to engineering and safety, but in general, from reading First Man and other biographies, he was not melancholy and enjoyed a good joke like the rest of us. Without trying to spoil the movie, there is a contemplative scene portrayed on the moon that was never described in the book and in my belief never happened, but was added for dramatic effect. In reality, their schedule was so full for the short time they had on the Moon that there would never have been time for this moment.

If you do want to see the movie, read the book first. The movie cuts from event to event with very little explanation and if I hadn't read the book first, there would have been very little understanding of some of the scenes.

I do highly recommend "Apollo 13" and the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon". I'm very excited and looking forward to seeing the new documentary, "Apollo 11".