* Posts by myhandler

359 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jan 2014

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Thunderbird is go: Mozilla's email client lands in a new nest

myhandler

Re: I've stopped using it

TB stores your email text so that a stemming algorithm can search it looking for word roots.

If you search for 'Weds' hoping to find Wednesday abbreviations it will also show 'wedding'.

If TB simply added a verbatim option it would make it much more usable. The filtering on search results is also very clunky. I have 10 years of emails and it's a pain to find anything without 20 clicks. Other than that TB is very good.

Stiff upper lip time, Brits: After bullying France to drop its digital tax on Silicon Valley, Trump's coming for you next

myhandler

Re: He's threatening Italy as well

Which rather highlights the problem of having the one size fits all economic policy, as dictated by single currency Euro. I'm a remainer but the problems aren't going to go away anytime soon.

Windows 7 back in black as holdouts report wallpaper-stripping shenanigans

myhandler

Re: I went to the bank on Saturday...

You can still do it for free though... it accepts W7 keys

myhandler

Re: yes, yes...

My screen is ok but it's a default blue MS thing. Got 10 on a dual boot SSD but can't bring myself to make that jump yet. Maybe tomorrow. Fuck tiles.

You're not Boeing to believe this: Yet another show-stopping software bug found in ill-fated 737 Max airplanes

myhandler

Re: Isn't THIS why we've got to teach 2nd-graders how to "code", rather than how to think?

Almost all degrees used to do this - including arts and humanities. It's the modern vocational degrees that tend to forget the 'why' question.

Step away from that Windows 7 machine, order UK cyber-cops: It's not safe for managing your cash digitally

myhandler

I consider myself a power user and switching is really difficult. As a Mac fanboy from 1988 to around 1998, the s/w I needed was Windows only so I moved over.. and recently doing a project requiring a Mac has been a pain. There's nothing I like about the experience. I even asked some Mac experts I know for usability tips but it was "Oh, no, I don't think you can do that."

Privacy activists beg Google to ban un-removable bloatware from Android

myhandler

From what I've read Google are keen on Android One being taken up - a clean base install with minimal bloat - just the one utility app on my Nokia - and it makes it easier for Google to roll out updates. Only a few Motorola and the Nokai range on it I think - but of course still Google's own bloat on there.

The Nokia 3.2 is a phone your nan will love: One camera's more than enough, darling

myhandler

Nokia 7.1 is available *new* online for £120 - it must be unsold stock but meh. A little older than this but much better spec all round - works for me.

Blackout Bug: Boeing 737 cockpit screens go blank if pilots land on specific runways

myhandler

There's a video online of it burning in the night sky as it comes down. Big fire on board.

From Soviet to science fiction icon, the weird life of Isaac Asimov 100 years on

myhandler

Re: He certainly wasn’t misogynist in his science fiction..

You "read" EE Doc Smith? - I gave up on chapter two of whatever book it was - absolute trash.

Google security engineer says she was fired for daring to remind Googlers they do indeed have labor rights

myhandler

Re: Companies have no God-given right to exist

And here you are invoking a straw man on " businesses will find ways to not employ people, or not operate in your jurisdiction/market, or at all."

Hate speech row: Fine or jail anyone who calls people boffins, geeks or eggheads, psychology nerd demands

myhandler

I always remember being called "Einstein" in a broad Hampshire twang as I pushed a broom around a factory. Quite proud of that.

If you want an example of how user concerns do not drive software development, check out this Google-backed API

myhandler

Re: No Chrome,...

Sadly this is how things work on the www - one player comes to the top and everything else falls by the wayside. The web accelerates the creation of monopolies.

Being able to operate with impunity across borders means the majors can evade much legislation.

Without state interevention we, the public, are stuffed, done up like a kipper and hung out to dry.

Brian Eno's latest composition: A giant Christmas card with Julian Assange on it

myhandler

Re: A bit unfair, IMHO...

A *bit* unfair? - it's a nasty piece of writing when it refers to Eno - he's made an enormous contribution to music and produced what are seminal albums.

Richard Currie shows how ignorant he is when all he can do is make jokes about ambient and Roxy Music. Perhaps you can look up Wikipedia next time?

Irish eyes aren't smiling after govt blows €1m on mega-printer too big for parliament's doors

myhandler

Re: Details

Are we sure that's a digital printer? That ain't a printer - it's an industrial press.

Looks identical to an offset litho press - I used to work in print.

Each lump of that thing will be printing one colour, the fifth lump will be for a fancy Pantone colour or spot varnish.

Mind... you should see a magazine /newspaper press if you think that's big.

Android dev complains of 'Orwellian' treatment as account banned after 6 years on Play store

myhandler

Re: Absolutely not...

Correct - and just today I spoke to a real human at Microsoft to cancel and get a refund for my son's XBox account, which he's had enough of.

The real human was careful, listened well, gave me the refund, asked if there was anything else he could help with. The hold queue to get through to this human was all of 40 seconds.

That call cost Microsoft at least 5 minutes of time for a £50 refund to a consumer.. and Google can't be arsed to have a real contact line with real humans ??

Arrogant bastards with the ethics of rattlesnakes.

Surprise! Copying crummy code from Stack Overflow leads to vulnerable GitHub jobs

myhandler

Re: Dumb community

Tradiontal forums were so much better in that you'd know which posters were expert. SO is a lottery. The fact that many posters want upticks is madness.

Context and discussion is critical - but it's verboten on SO.

It's ace that UK.gov 'in 2030 will be joined up, trusted and responsive' – but what about now?

myhandler

Re: Rulez for Government IT Projects

You forgot "award contract to Crapita"

Google age discrimination case: Supervisor called me 'grandpa', engineer claims

myhandler

Performant? Que?

Right-click opens up terrifying vistas of reality and Windows 95 user's frightful position therein

myhandler

Re: Taking the Trash

Gor blimey trousers is where it's at you young'uns.

Apple blinks on iPhone repairs, touts parts program for independent tech mechanics... sort of

myhandler

And what wil the trainingg cost be for the "Apple certified techicnian"?

Timpson's Shoes had a guy who fixed the battery on my daughter's iPhone 5 - a tricky operation by all accounts.

Time off for training? not worth it for many small places.

This does nothing. Sell the damn parts at a reasonable price too.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson moves to shut Parliament

myhandler

Re: So, to sum up. . .

That's hilarious - 411 votes - sorry how many? did you say four hundred and eleven?

Versus 1 million seven hundred and two..

(at 28 8 2019 23.10)

Web body mulls halving HTTPS cert lifetimes. That screaming in the distance is HTTPS cert sellers fearing orgs will bail for Let's Encrypt

myhandler

Re: IoT

Wood pellet stove you can control from your phone? Henry David Thoreau rolls on floor..

Plusnet holds off spirited charge from Vodafone in broadband complaint charts

myhandler

So.. a direct correlation between annoyingness of TV ad and crap service.

Scots git for BT broadband

Sodding karaoke for the subsidiary.

cPanel unleashes price hikes on its most dense customers

myhandler

Is there no monopolies commission in Oakley Capital's country of origin?

Owning Plesk as well, however horrible it is, is cornering the market.

Biz tells ransomware victims it can decrypt their files... by secretly paying off the crooks and banking a fat margin

myhandler

You think that's a good way to do business?

Gaze in awe at the first ever movie of a solar eclipse from recording long thought lost forever

myhandler

Great . but if they've restored it and retimed it, they may as well stabilise it too.

There's a scarily good 'deepfakes' YouTube channel that's quietly growing – and it's freaking everyone out

myhandler

Brunner also predicted mass migration of the desperate poor trying to get in to Europe from Africa - I can't reclal which of those two it was in either!

AI can now animate the Mona Lisa's face or any other portrait you give it. We're not sure we're happy with this reality

myhandler

That Mona Lisa one is hilarious

So I said to Leo, I said "Get on with it, I ain't got all day, need to nip out fer a bit, pasta tonght alright, darlin? - then you're off to see the boys, yeah?"

Parents slapped with dress code after turning school grounds into a fashion crime scene

myhandler

What's wrong with a satin bonnet? I had to Googl it to see what it was - just a big satin beret for those with bushy hair. Could be seen to be anti those with bushy hair.

NPM apologizes for ham-fisted handling of recent staff layoffs

myhandler

Re: The blessing and curse of centralized software module sites

All you needed to say was " left-pad should have been a wake up call..."

Apple disables iPad for 48 years after toddler runs amok

myhandler

Re: Three year olds can't read

You might find the novel The Last Samurai by Helen De Witt amusing. It's about a somewhat similar kid.

The curious case of a WordPress plugin, a rival site spammed with traffic, a war of words, and legal threats

myhandler

Re: Oh what a tangled web...

eh? it's server side PHP

Brit Parliament online orifice overwhelmed by Brexit bashers

myhandler

Re: The only conspiracy

They said it's the trending recounts crashed it - what arsewipe mofo ****** does a trending recount on live data per click? Shoot me now.

IBM so very, very sorry after jobs page casually asks hopefuls: Are you white, black... or yellow?

myhandler

Re: There's A Bit Of A Slope On It

Of course he knew what it meant - it's used in Australia as well - anyone who thinks Clarkson didn't know is beng a troll racist apologist. Clarkson said it with a little girn on his face. Vile humour.

WWW = Woeful, er, winternet wendering? CERN browser rebuilt after 30 years barely recognizes modern web

myhandler

Re: No https for you

The entirety of Beeb news is disappearing down the pan.

Web as above.

TV as above.

Much as it pains me I prefer Sky on Freeview TV now, plus Channel 4 of course.

Graun is very clicky baity too.

They don't realise they've shot themselves in the foot.

Why does that website take forever to load? Clues: Three syllables, starts with a J, rhymes with crock of sh...

myhandler

How much of this is down to implementations where sites are put together via Node or similar, dependency mountains get bolted in routinely, and stuff gets added because it's simple to add?

Or does that only really affect the back end?

Granddaddy of the DIY repair generation John Haynes has loosened his last nut

myhandler

Mr Haynes should have been knighted.

(but with a torque wrench obvs.)

myhandler

Re: When changing bearings

Ah the drift - do people still use that word?

Got a couple of promising ones in my toolbox but not sure they'll find a use now.

'Now is the winter of our disk contents'... Decision on Lauri Love's seized gear due next week

myhandler
Thumb Up

We have to wonder, is El Reg headline writer heading for greater things?

(Full of wise saws and modern instances ;-)

Amid polar vortex... Honeywell gets frosty reception after remote smart thermostat tech freezes up for a week

myhandler

Re: IOT=Crap

Ah, of course, the orthodox Jews - using IoT to avert God's wrath.

Apple hardware priced so high that no one wants to buy it? It's 1983 all over again

myhandler

Re: A reminder of how crap Apple products are

Well done Mystic Megabyte for your troll nonsense.

An iMac would have no problem rotating a JPEG - you had some other problem but failed to look harder.

myhandler

Re: ' by 1998 there was no actual need to buy a mac for DTP. NT4 was excellent'

In 1988/89 the Mac revolutionised the professional print and design industry.

IIx, II fx, IIcx, I remember them well - even the dinky little Classics and SE30s could do useful work for some.

Overnight commercial typesetting companies went bust.

Advertising and general publishing then got on board and by about 1994 the reprographics industry was also chewed up and spat out.

Windows was not a viable replacement till 2000, if that, and even then every design professional would laugh contemptuously.

Lisa led the way.

Disclaimer : I've not used a Mac for nearly 20 years.

Encryption? This time it'll be usable, Thunderbird promises

myhandler

Thunderbird search stinks to high heaven and beyond.

Search for 'weds' and you will get weddings as well as some Wednesdays .

Stemming search I think they call it - but it can't be switched off. ASININE BEYOND BELIEF.

Filterng the results of search also stinks:

The list of recipients updates if you filter by year - but if you filter with "not involving this person" - any other people who only appear under that inital user you've filteredd out are still shown in the list, so you have to remove dozens to get a reasonalble list of possibles. It's pathetic.

But yeah a new fancy UX is more important - not.

I bet it looks like a bloody app next year.

I'm just not sure the computer works here – the energy is all wrong

myhandler

Apple Mac SE 30: user complained it kept switching off when she was working, yet stayed on fine if she wasn't using it.

So I sat down for the event she insisted would occur.

It happened and I was surprised - so I thought we'd better repeat it.

Luckily I sat a few feet away and there she was, one leg crossed over the other, pointy shoes, and her leg starts swinging as she gets into her work - and the tip of her bloody stilletto hits the mains switch on the wall, just enough to break the power.

London Gatwick Airport reopens but drone chaos perps still not found

myhandler

Re: Environmental Protestors?

Could just be another personality profile - not everyone wants to join a gang.

If you do this as "proof of concept" you've immediately given away your method - you can be sure something will be brought in to counter it.

There must be sightings by locals outside the perimeter by now - but maybe they hate the airport.

London's Gatwick airport suspends all flights after 'multiple' reports of drones

myhandler

Yeah well obvs I meant geostationary.

myhandler

So what's the deal on surveillance satellites?

I don't know how many there are over Southern UK and if one can study Gatwick, but I believe they have enough resolution to see a big drone.

If so the military in charge can tell plod where to find the perp.

Anyone care to explain why that's fantasy?

LG's beer-making bot singlehandedly sucks all fun, boffinry from home brewing

myhandler

Re: Capsule system.

The thing about buying coffee as beans or ready ground is I've got the whole world to choose from and no crap pod nonsense.

The internet is going to hell and its creators want your help fixing it

myhandler

Re: Saving democracy

I wish you were right - but don't you remember the kids at school who always messed around, and the others who were certain they were right in every argument.

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