* Posts by myhandler

356 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jan 2014

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The end of Microsoft-brand peripherals is only Surface deep

myhandler

Intellimouse, wired, got a spare too if it conks out.

Wired is lighter than wireless so less strain on the hand.

Scroll wheel for scrolling and left side button set to 'show desktop' - never found anything better.

Singapore tells its people: Go forth and block those ads

myhandler

Re: Vinegar.....

Ads? Does YouTube have ads? It's been so long UBlock Origin has done it's thing I forgot.

Medusa ransomware crew brags about spreading Bing, Cortana source code

myhandler

septics

Parts of UK booted offline as Virgin Media suffers massive broadband outage

myhandler

Yes down for me - I hadn't got up in time to notice this morning. Right now it's all over the place - some sites work, some don't, connections suddenly drop.

I should add VM has been reliable here in Surrey over the past year, and was for years at previous London address.

Student satellite demonstrates drag sail to de-orbit old hardware

myhandler

How about an explanation of how it works?

Also if it was 30cm cube how come it only weighed 225 grammes? That's half a tin of tomatoes.

Anyone want an International Space Station? Slightly used

myhandler

Re: Mir

"..so it can be controlled where it enters the atmosphere and intimately ends up."

How intimate are you hoping for?

Boffins find 'missing link' between interstellar ice and what comes out of the tap

myhandler

Re: Water, water everywhere....

Not sure where you get 5 hour days from - more like 20 hour days. And there's early earth and there's early life - they are not the same - but don't worry you're only out by nearly 4 billion years.

The second dust bowl cometh for America, supercomputer warns

myhandler

There's a paragraph in the article starting:

"Even still, the group has limited the long-term trajectory of these forecasts to 50 years...."

What does "Even still" add?

Do American journos not know how to speaka da language?

Financial authorities fine UK bank nearly $60m for platform migration disaster

myhandler

FFS - just show our local currency in the headline - sod the dollars

Too much septicisation going on.

BBC is still struggling with the digital switch, says watchdog

myhandler

Re: Slow moving

Yes, the same with printed newspapers. It was very easy to read the first few paragraphs before deciding if it was interesting to you - I'd then often read the whole piece. The web doesnt have that appeal. There's so much garbage that we learn to make instant judgements and reject stuff that doesn't appeal before gving it a try.

It's when you see or read stuff that you had no idea you might find interesting that you learn new things.

Sadly BBC documentaries have been pretty weak for years along with a reliance on the presenter. Not Mr Attenborough I might add, but Brian Cox says the same stuff, too slowly, over and over again.

I'd rather see more from Jim Al Khalili or Nick Lane - a whole grown up series on evolution could be quite something.

But the funding, the funding - and the role government plays to grind them into the ground.

Intel expects to regain market share by 2024, admits to 'inefficiency in the fab'

myhandler

Re: Hope for handouts is eternal in Murica

That you Elon?

Inadequate IT partly to blame for NHS doctors losing 13.5 million working hours

myhandler

I was with an NHS eye specialist recently, she moves from one hospital to another. She wanted to write a prescription for me and forward it on my GP for repeats. She had to call a colleague to help - who was rude and said "you should know this by now". So I looked over and the arcane set of clicks and buttons would confuse anyone not using it regularly.

It looked like it had stepped out of the 1980s. I was in at the dawn of the web and interface design and it looks like the NHS are still there. It doesn't need to be 'Appified' it just needs UX people to be involved.

Stack Overflow bans ChatGPT as 'substantially harmful' for coding issues

myhandler

Re: ChatGPT appears to getting glowing reviews

How long did it take you to specify *exactly* what you wanted?

A trivial exercise to prove it works is just that

Security firms hijack New York trees to monitor private workforce

myhandler

Pfft, just 3d print some new trees, nobody will notice.

ISS dodges space junk from satellite Russia blew up

myhandler

Re: Hello Garbage Scowl!

Most of it is tiny particles, like paint flecks. Can still punch a hole in a space station

Scanning phones to detect child abuse evidence is harmful, 'magical' thinking

myhandler

Re: If people in the 1960s knew what computers and the Internet did to our freedom

Thank you Number 6, reference noted.

Waxworm's spit shows promise in puncturing plastic pollution

myhandler

Any fast and bulbous squid involved?

Chinese researchers make car glide 35mm above ground in maglev test

myhandler

Re: No Dogs in this race

I remember a boy at school making one for some A level. I saw it working, track was only about 30 feet and 'train' was maybe 18" long. As you can tell it was long time ago - pre-metrication. Yes it was a school with exceptional facilites and teachers but I wonder what the guy did, spend 50 years watching as no one got it to the mass market?

Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth II – Britain's first high-tech monarch

myhandler

Exactly, my mother never took a driving test as it was WWII. I think my Dad taught her when they were courting. She was a pretty good driver as it goes.

AI detects 20,000 hidden taxable swimming pools in France, netting €10m

myhandler

Re: If it steers boots on the ground to double check

Tax dodging has been the way of life for several hundred years in France. That's why the villages look so quaint, if you paint your house the taxman takes notice.

UK's largest water company investigates datacenters' use as drought hits

myhandler

Mine harnesses wind power *and* solar. I better get it to market pronto.

Google promises to adjust search algorithm to favor 'people-first content'

myhandler

I used to have a plug in for Firefox that forced "verbatim" on every bloody search.

But who knows why it got deactivated and no longer works.

So I have to carefully decide what phrases to put in quotes, or click Tools > All Results > Verbatim - drives me mad, what a lunatic waste of time.

The bastards don't give a flying fart for their users.

Open source VideoLAN media player asks why it's blocked in India

myhandler

It freely plays religious material not approved by Modi's BJP, that's why it's banned

SpaceX demonstrates that it too can shower the Earth with debris

myhandler

Re: Video of this alien artifact

The YouTube above links to it half way through - where it makes no sense.

Neil, remove that t=202s!

Surprise! The metaverse is going to suck for privacy

myhandler

Re: Cognitive Acuity ?

There'll be a tiny image of Zuckerfucker in the blind spot.

Psst … Want to buy a used IBM Selectric? No questions asked

myhandler

I remember the Selectric well. Impressive machines but not as cool as an Olivetti portable.

FYI: BMW puts heated seats, other features behind paywall

myhandler

They sold Saab's engine tech to China - even though that was specfically blocked in the buy out clause when GM bought Saab. But corporate lawyers always find a way round.

Microsoft delays controversial ban on paid-for open source, WebKit in app store

myhandler

thanks - that figures.

myhandler

What relevance does an MS App store have ???

They don't do phones anymore. Just download it anywhere else.

Am I missing something?

Thunderbird is coming to Android – in K-9 Mail form

myhandler

Yep Fair Email is excellent, handles multiple accounts no problem, and zero spying

AI-powered browser extension to automatically click away cookie pop-ups now promised

myhandler

Re: You need AI/ML for that?

It's hilarious how the JS haters here think they have *the* answer.

It's become a cult here.

They fail to grasp they are a tiny percentage of the population.

Might they consider this extension is not built with them in mind?

Yes, yes, downvote away.

South Yorkshire to test fiber broadband through water pipes

myhandler

Re: Where's Elon when you need him?

Elon will suggest a mini-sub. A tiny-sub.. that then pulls a thin fibre, which pulls a thicker fibre and so on.

All that megaherz in the water though, homoeopaths will kick up a stink.

Russian IT pros flee Putin, says tech lobby group

myhandler

I read on another forum, from a Russian uaing a VPN, that they have a shortage of paper - they still like to print lots. Till receipts, official docs, but there's a loo roll shortage too.

But they can't quickly convert to plastic payment - they buy in the credit card plastic and card chips. Lots of the population lack smart phones - but those that do have them dislike QR codes as part of their anti vax beliefs. Not enough CCTV cameras either.

They didn't think to build up a central warehouse of server stuff, hard drives, what have you.

Then they manage this on a region by region basis and the regulations are different between them.

The buck (rouble) needs to stop with that disgusting cretin at the top.

Oxidation-proof copper could replace gold, meaning cheaper chips, says prof

myhandler

"atomic sputtering epitaxy"

Is that the same 'sputter' as the one in the Eels' song Novocaine for the soul?

Yes, Mark Zuckerberg is still pushing metaverse. Next step, language translation

myhandler

It's good news all round, Meta is metastasizing.

Website fined by German court for leaking visitor's IP address via Google Fonts

myhandler

You're clearly not a typographer or graphic designer. A type face says so much more than just the semantics. You really want to return to every site being in Times, Arial or Verdana?

Vulnerabilities and censorship tools among hot new features in Beijing's Olympics app

myhandler

Tibet

Pooh bear

Free Hong Kong

Dalai Lama

Uighurs

etc.

etc.

GTFO & GFY Xi JinPing

Malaysia tweaks copyright law to hit streamers of copyright-infringing content

myhandler

Re: Copyright is easy when it's obvious...

If you're looking to reprint it, can't you add a statement that you're looking for the descendants etc etc and then make sure you don't spend the profits for 10 years? Or are you hoping to build a TV series around it?

Why would someone downvote you? Off topic? Oh no, quelle desastre.

We've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Mega-comets lurking in solar systems, spewing carbon monoxide

myhandler

"the mega-comet exhibited a coma a startling 23.8 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun – roughly 24 times the distance between the Earth and our star

Meaningless approximation? How about just saying what an AU is.

Or measure in football pitches.

Giant Japanese corporations to launch bank-backed digital currency

myhandler

Re: Digital currency good. Blockchain pointless?

Jaoan lower in honesty than the UK? That might need looking at.

Through the Looking Glass – holographic display hardware is great, but it's not enough

myhandler

Re: What is that depth information used for?

You can't avoid that bloody effect. Every documentary uses it. I'm a purist. I like my images as they were shot, flat and no sodding fake colorization (TM) either.

Macmillan best-biscuit list unexpectedly promotes breakfast cereal to treat status

myhandler

That'll be *brouhaha* for the heading... not 'brewhaha'

Or was the sub-ed thinking it witty with a cuppa?

Apple, Google yank opposition voting strategy app from Russian software stores

myhandler

This being the country where Boris Vishnevsky, who's another Kremlin critic, finds himself up against two other guys with almost identical names and look-alike faces.

Why we abandoned open source: LiveCode CEO on retreat despite successful kickstarter

myhandler

Looks very like Macromedia Director's Lingo

84-year-old fined €250,000 for keeping Nazi war machines – including tank – in basement

myhandler

Goodness, I was only asking a "how come"

So many downvotes - I bet half those clickers didn't know the facts till they read the helpful explanation. Or perhaps it was my gratuitous side swipe at Yanks..

Anyway, now I know it's a kampfenwagen I'll look at VW Campers in a new light

myhandler

How come it's a "Panther"? They're called Panzers in any books and movies, whether English or German.

...has it been rewritten for the septic readership?

NFT or not to NFT: Steve Jobs' first job application auction shows physically unique beats cryptographically unique

myhandler

wtf. so physical thing on scrappy old paper is worth more than imaginary thing conjured out of nothing?

who'd have thought it.

Facebook gardening group triumphs over slapdash Zuck censorbots

myhandler

"We have plans to build out better.."

sounds disturbingly familiar...

Six years in the making, Vivaldi Mail arrives alongside version 4.0 of the company's browser

myhandler

Ther's a calandar plug-in/add-on for Thunderbird and it understands Outlook event dates. Works for me

Apple sued in nightmare case involving teen wrongly accused of shoplifting, driver's permit used by impostor, and unreliable facial-rec tech

myhandler

Re: Justice

No the impostor is just a thief. The fault is with facial recognition systems and employees who believe computers never make mistakes. That's how it's going to be from now.

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