* Posts by myhandler

357 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jan 2014

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Techie the most recession-proof job

myhandler

Re: Yeah... not "tech" so much..

Engineering? I'm led to believe that's as recession proof as a chemist or miner..

Plumber or central heating engineer.. now you're talking

When customers try to be programmers: 'I want this CHANGED TO A ZERO ASAP'

myhandler

Surely that first item is nonsense.. what company would happily change a specific item of code at a customer's request?

They might change what a piece of code *does*, but changing a 1 to a 0 is non compliant, certainly not ISO whatever that number is, and the manager who said "yeah ok " would get fired straightaway.

How many Surface power cords are a fire risk? 2.25 million in the US alone

myhandler

"wound too tightly, twisted or pinched over an extended period”.

eh... I'm no MSoft fan but any cable will degrade when twisted tightly etc..

I'm forever telling my kids to stop wrapping their earbud wires round their fingers.

Dumb consumers methinks.

If you're one of millions using Magento – stop whatever you're doing and patch now

myhandler

Re: Magento does not properly validate this email

>The validation happens clientside in Javascript.

> You can't get the exploit samples to pass unless you shut it off.

If you think that's ok Gollux, then you you clearly have a lot to learn

Cunning Greek lizards seek skin-matching rocks

myhandler

The lizards have the habit of going to the same rocks when out for a stroll - maybe they scent mark where they've been.

Red lizards on blue rocks get eaten quicker so don't survive to stroll the next day.

Pink lizards on pink rocks well you know

Darwin :one - Intelligence : zero

Eh, Kate?

BT dismisses MPs' calls to snap off Openreach as 'wrong-headed'

myhandler

Anything with the name "Grant Shapps" on is dodgy

Microsoft’s Get Windows 10 nagware shows signs of sentience

myhandler

No nags here either - that's on my work W7 pro machine and the wife's W7 Vaio laptop.

Had to get a PC for my student son and cruelly inflicted W10 on him. That might explain his shouting at the screen, then again that could be disputes with competing gamers..

Hapless Virgin Media customers face ongoing email block woes

myhandler

Hmm , I have an old Blueyonder a/c for my home mail - I've had it forever.

Just looked at the spam folder in their yucky webmail system but nothing.

Their webmail has always been a bit crap - I use POP, set to delete from server, so you'd assume email was deleted, but no, the webmail page always show hundreds of old emails that I've already read.

I host work email elsewhere but Virgin provide email so they should provide a decent service.

Lettuce-nibbling veggies menace Mother Earth

myhandler

Re: Strawy man, strawy man, does whatever a straw, er, can...

RE:"In all seriousness, I'm actually curious if you could get enough energy to survive on solely by eating an unlimited supply of lettuce"

Some lettuce species contain a soporific, so everyone would be dozing off with no need for energy : perfect solution.

A font farewell to Fontdeck as website service closes

myhandler

Re: I've noticed this stupidity

Google insist there is no specific tracking on fonts and they also say it's safe to use them on the admin section of a CMS - though silly to use them there imo.

Dum dum dum - another cloud bites the dust (Adobe's photo cloud)

myhandler

What gets me is that the public think 'cloud' is something special - something cool and modern. Nope, it's just a boring bunch of servers.

Brit filmmaker plans 10hr+ Paint Drying epic

myhandler

Um. so classification also helps parents decide what is suitable for their kids to see.

£100 per movie plus a few quid per minute is bugger all.

Also I knew a guy who worked at the BBFC - pay was crap and it quickly got very boring

Apple's design 'drives up support costs, makes gadgets harder to use'

myhandler

Re: @ El Reg

I'm such an old fart it was system 6 for me - fitted on two floppy disks didn't it..

I hated OSX so much I went to Windows - been there ever since battling with it but at least I can make it look as I want .. but now dreading the next PC and W10.

myhandler

Nothing that wrong with skeuomorphic - they just become symbols you recognise, providing they aren't reinvented all the time. It's design snobbery to sneer at it. (disclaimer: I have a BA in Graphic Design)

But why the hell does everyone copy iOS style? Every website apes it now.

Anyone notice how logo animation on tv adverts now copies the motion that Javascript routines do?

This is all just fashion.. one distant day extravagant rococo decoration might come back in.

How Microsoft will cram Windows 10 even harder down your PC's throat early next year

myhandler

...and in more news why Microsoft are fuckwits :

They emailed to say I need to update my credit card on my son's Xbox account.

Simple?

No, the form keeps switching to a US entry form - even though it states UK at the top - and it then continually rejects my postcode as invalid. I tried Firefox and then IE - same problem. I left it a few weeks and tried again - same problem.

I even phoned support (it's impossible to get human help any other way) and the guy in Ireland said " oh yes, that happens sometimes". Could he help or take my details over the phone?

No, I needed another set of passwords for that and have to log in from the Xbox to verify.

Windows10 can go to hell.

Top VW exec blames car pollution cheatware scandal on 'a couple of software engineers'

myhandler

You don't sound like a dumb septic, you are a dumb septic. Chip on shoulder much?

Singapore Post tests drone delivery services

myhandler

Half of the population of Singapore are drones as it is.

Google and pals launch Accelerated Mobile Pages project

myhandler

Re: Ironic then

Live in the past if you want, but Javascripted solutions can provide big benefits to functionallity.

I don't have any crap on the sites I build but they do gain from JS when it's used appropriately

myhandler

Jquery is a very useful tool.

It's the dozens of plugins and scripts and things like sodding bootstrap that kill it all.

You can't get rid of CSS - it works well (even if it's a bodge) - it needs updating but that will take the committees years.

Just not lets end up in a "multiple standards" situation again

11 MILLION VW cars used Dieselgate cheatware – what the clutch, Volkswagen?

myhandler

What I don't understand is how they imagined they could get away with it indefinitely.

People leave companies and go to competitiors, people chat to friends.

Was it just a slow incremental thing, where to begin with it just fell out of optimising for 30 mph figures .. and then they kept tweaking it and tweaking it. ?

Won't every manufacturer be doing this, on all fuels?

CHEAT! Volkswagen chief 'deeply sorry' over diesel emission test dodge

myhandler

Clearly it means all testing must be done by independent bodies.

The issue is can the consumer ever trust anything they are told about how a product performs.

I hope the fines are massive.

WARM, WOBBLING MOON believed to hide MOIST CRADLE of life

myhandler

Erm .. what's the gravity on that ? - you could go into orbit from a good surf take off

Google robo-car suffers brain freeze after seeing hipster cyclist

myhandler

Why does the cycling subject bring out so many trolls?

Anyone would think the user's in their metal boxes stand to get physically injured, but no, it's the soft objects around them that petrify ther sense of ownership and importance.

On yer bike: Hammerhead satnav for cyclists – just don't look down

myhandler

why don't they just add some bleeps ..one for turn right, a double beep for turn left ..

and a ***##@@** beep for cars that get too close

(seems to have too many leds - half that number would do the job)

BUZZKILL. Honeybees are dying in DROVES - and here's a reason why

myhandler

Is this linked to usage of GM crops ?.. to be specific the fact that GM crops are more pesticide tolerant thus allowing farmers to spray more.

I don't know - is there any evidence for this?

Go, daddy, go: GoDaddy shares rocket 30% in value at IPO

myhandler

Unbloody believable.. why would anyone buy these shares?

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

myhandler

Yes - the damn BBC in on the act.. and as you say 'kinL worse than the Reg - get my news off the Grauniad now.

What beats me is why they can't do a desktop size design - oh yes that's it, they can.. they just think it's not cool.

myhandler

No, it hasn't got less hideous over the last two days- it still sucks big time.

Get some grown up graphic designers.

myhandler

You need to get an experienced traditional newspaper typographer involved. Someone who understands vertical rules.

Front page is hideous, yet strikingly characterless.

Body pages - meh - don't make the mostly pointless feature pic so damn big.

Um, site is not even responsive?

Telly behemoths: Does size matter?

myhandler

Being proper well posh I still get a twinge of guilt when I watch ITV - especially the News.

We got colour quite early - maybe 1970 - my Dad was in the electrical business but I still went to the loft to watch Monty Python on the vintage Bush black and white 405 line - big thing with doors down to the ground and maybe an 18" tube. Took forever to warm up and I can still smell that lovely aroma of valves heating up.

[oh weird -- so I then did a web search for the Bush tv and find a Daily Mail article on how some guy has converted the very same model (from 1957) to run on digital... ]

BBC: SOD the scientific consensus! Look OUT! MEGA TSUNAMI is coming

myhandler

Don't knock our BBC - it might get privatised, then what?

Compare it to ANY other broadcaster ...

I saw this doucumentary and thought it was quite fun - not saying the guy shouldn't complain though - Beeb needs to be kept on it's toes while it's still a public body.

So who just bought the rights to .blog for $20m? A chap living in Panama

myhandler

@KenHagan: man you're rude ... so, you cretinous fuckwit:

A key reason to validate email is reduce spam merchants and fake registrations

I expect you only see it from a customer viewpoint

Validation has its place

Rule-breakers thrive in strait-laced Singapore

myhandler

Worked there for a few years some time ago - thinking outside the box is not a country wide trait.

The majority prefer to copy rather than innovate.

But look at the place - it's Basingstoke in the tropics - no space to swing a cat and a patrician government that does what it wants and disregards anything other than growth.

Is Windows RT not invited to the Windows 10 upgrade party?

myhandler

Re: RT seems pointless now

Ossi - please tell me what's good about it?

My wife bought me a Surface2 for Christmas and got shirty when I wanted to swap it.

Sure the construction is good but getting it up and running was a nightmare cos of a million upgrades and a messed up charging system that refused to function.

The browser has no history in touch mode - you have to switch to desktop mode to get history - joined up thinking? I use history all the time, it's essential.

Apps ?

£100 keyboard?

Horizontal scrolling as the way to scroll general pages ? that's dumb and counter intuitive

It's a very nice kitchen tablet . The end.

Microsoft will give away Windows 10 FREE - for ONE year

myhandler

What out poor old Vista? I've got a Vista PC that could easily run Win10.

But I'm quite happy with my Win7 PCs, so why would I bother to mess with them?

Spotify flips bird at Taylor Swift, adds MILLIONS more users

myhandler

1) can someone please explain exactly what flipping the bird is?

2) whatever it is, it's a nasty Americanism

My best bud is a billionaire: Peter Thiel jumps into bed with dope upstarts

myhandler

So good investment till the lung cancer and schizophrenic behaviours kick in?

I used to smoke a lot - sure it's fun for a while, but it's not some holy soma.

I'm sooooo green: The Beginner's Guide to Krautrock

myhandler

Daddy take a banana, tomorrow is Sunday

I often listen to aumgn and peking O all the way through sober

Note: It is forbidden to even mention emesis shite and vomit in a Krautrock thread

By the Rivers of Babylon, where the Antikythera Mechanism laid down

myhandler

pedantic point to journalist who wrote:

"...anyone who's watched even the doggrel version of history on offer in 300..."

firstly the word is doggerel

secondly it means rough poetry or verse usually comic

nothing to do with history..

knowledge gets lost through carelessness as well

As-a-service upstarts will KILL OFF THE CORPORATES?

myhandler

I'm a one man company and before that was freelance.

There are massive benefits to the firm structure - "firm memory" is important.. not just "where did you put that" but "how did we handle this three years ago". Sure people leave and things are forgotten - but some long term memory is beneficial.

(Ironically as a long term freelancer I did hold that role on some projects in a large company I was at for too long.. )

Pure outsourcing? Anyone tried it ? It can take as long to manage as to get the job done locally - the load on the manager is doubled, so it only becomes practical on larger projects - and you have to ensure the contractor is then re-contactable in the future - otherwise new person has to learn it all from scratch.

Only problem with firms is the required bureaucracy and nuber of people you may dislike

The next big thing in medical science: POO TRANSPLANTS

myhandler

It's science - the number of "ooh isn't this pongy" jokes in the article only serve to make it clear how the Register should get off it's end of the pier comedy routine sometimes.

BBC reported on this topic months ago.

Dodgy thruster won't stop Philae hurtling toward comet showdown

myhandler

Re: Live from Mission Control. Continued.

"Patrick Moore and Walter Cronkite must be spinning in their orbits."

yes but alternatively we might have a hyper excited Maggie Aderin-Pocock (Dr)

Cure for death (by PowerPoint) emerges from Japan

myhandler

Re: Easiest way to avoid DbPP...

Every meeting must expand to fill its allotted time slot - that's optimal use of "time slot" and "room book" commodities.

HUGE SHARK as big as a WWII SUBMARINE died out, allowing whales to exist

myhandler

X craft were in fact known as "midget submarines", but who wants to get in the way of a headline.

Not remotely the size of a big whale.

(My 'ordinal number' cousin was in that Tirpitz raid - one of those who didn't come back.)

Kingston's aviation empire: From industry firsts to Airfix heroes

myhandler

Eh, this is weird - my luxury office is in the featured Siddeley House - if I'd known El Reg were taking pics you could have had a guided tour - fyi, it's not owned by Serviced Offices but by a private landlord who cares for the building, no expense spared.

(trivia point: my parents knew Tommy Sopwith)

When I moved in I researched the aviation history thoroughly - yes, there should be more than the odd plaque, but what?

Smart meters in UK homes will only save folks a lousy £26 a year

myhandler

Yes, but think how useful they will be for people to make comparative tests on their old (evil) high power vacuum cleaner against a new low power one.

We can then go round the house, using the finger wipe test, to see how much dust is left behind versus power consumed and time taken and then moan at the EU for banning the sale of high power machines.

Have they calculated how many nuclear power stations of energy (nuckergs) it will take to manufacture these things?

Dolby Atmos is coming home and it sounds amazing

myhandler

Re: About time

Re Arnold L's comment > For some time I've thought it strange that we are forced to take the mix that a sound engineer deems appropriate.

You really think anyone apart from a music nerd is going to bother?

I spend a lot of time messing around in audio mixing DAWs, as an amateur - to do it just for the hell of it will not catch on.

MYSTERIOUS Siberia CRATER: ALIENS or METEOR not involved, officials insist

myhandler

Um - nothing to say or show how big it actually is?

10 metres wide ? 100?

Needs a yak herder peering in to give scale.

Not your father's spam: Trojan slingers attach badness to attachment WITHIN attachment

myhandler

>>Upatre can be likened to a sherpa in the world of cybercrime, setting up a base camp for assaults by other cybercrime tools on weakly secured systems.

Dreadful simile.

A sherpa leads people to safety.

Facebook hacks out PHP alternative

myhandler

re: " At a previous company we got a consultant in to produce a web application for us, and we stipulated it be written in Java and use our existing data access layer."

I'm afraid its 100% down to bad management on you or your bosses part, and a fail from the guy employed to do the job - but it's no fault of PHP whatsoever.

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