Posts by Sub 20 Pilot

Australia to force Google and Facebook to pay for news and reveal algorithm changes before they whack web traffic

Useless search engines from Google and the like.

I know that this is not a mainstream case and slightly off-topic but I have found the big search engines to be useless unless you want to buy something from the larger multinationals.

It may have improved by now but a few years ago if I put something like ''Ulnar fracture'' into a search box the first page would be filled with things like ''get your next ulnar fracture from amazon'' or similar. Fucking useless for anything except the promotion of amazon..

Same if I wanted to find details on something just as specific related to my work. I may be looking for Radon Gas barriers but the top listings would be companies selling gas and electricity and wanting you to switch providers. Keywords or whatever may serve a purpose but not in most cases where ''gas'' doesn't automatically mean you want to change your gas provider.

Very similar is the propensity for any English search term to throw up loads of US sites regardless of what you put in as a search term or tried to restrict to UK English. If the searches are no good then no point trying to use them.

I use DDG when I have to or try to find details by other means but for me the search engine has been nothing but a waste of time and maybe things like this will change them for the better. ( It's Friday so I am allowed a bit of optimism...)

Keep it Together, Microsoft: New mode for vid-chat app Teams reminds everyone why Zoom rules the roost

Usual MS behaviour.

Microsoft are the spoilt child at their own birthday party who have a ton of chocolate ice cream on their plate but whine because someone else has a cake and they should have that too.

If they did one thing properly, say for example produced an OS that was not an utter pile of shite ( W10 ) and spent their efforts on making it workable, stable, secure and usable without the constant fucking about with needless updates without dealing with the core problems, then I would be happy.

Instead they have to interfere in everything and produce a third rate alternative then try to foist it on everyone, even to the extent of buying the competitor and killing it ( can't be long before they do it to Zoom ?) I used Skype quite a bit before they bollocksed it up. Never used it since.

I am happy to pay a subscription for an OS as I need it to make a living. This is something which they can not achieve, sending out pointless crap under the guise of value for money. Anyone using their OS for work, which is what I have to do, is stuck with this endless load of crap.

NOTE: I don't need any smug Linux users telling me that I should use their favoured OS at this point as it will not run AutoCAD or any of the windows only structural analysis, BREEAM or heat loss modelling software amongst other things that I need to run. Believe me I have tried over the years to do this in various emulators etc but to no avail.

I have used Zoom for meetings since the lockdown and do so on a 5 year old Android phone, a newish Android tablet, a laptop running W10 and a PC running W7. I have not had a single problem in all that time with it. I had one meeting whereI was present in the same room as a colleague who was using Teams on his laptop. It was the most turgid, stuttery, problem ridden bunch of arse I have seen in years, it could well have been running on a 20 year old virus ridden plodding donkey of a pc and not a high spec W10 laptop.

I have been hoping for a resolution to MS' dominance of the pc scene in terms of what I need it to do for decades and looks like I will have retired before it improves. At least then I can be rid of the fucking pestilence and just use Android and Linux. Roll on that day.

Wallet-snatch hack: ApplePay 'vulnerable to attack', claim researchers

NFC payments in general

Personally I don't think people will have to go to any great lengths to steal credit / cash from most of the public in this way. For the last few years since the upsurge in NFC credit cards and the various mobile pay services I can sit in my friend's shop and watch as about 95% if not more of customers come in and pay for fuel, fags, booze, other miscellaneous stuff on a contactless card or phone and will say ''I don't ant the receipt.''

Fucking mind boggling stupidity in my opinion. Why give the banks and card providers any more reason not to credit you a disputed claim for a fraudulent transaction ?

With this kind of stupidity in the majority it can surely only be a matter of time before someone realises that they have been stung somewhere and then realises that they can't do a thing about it. Or is it just the hipster morons with too much money / rich parents that are doing this and not really caring.

The user base I see are usually the teenagers / early 20's lot who in general seem to have no clue about reality, aided by parents who seem to fund their every whim. Others are older and seem a bit unsure when using the technology but do it anyway as it is the in thing to do maybe.

I have long given up my 'good samaritan' bit, or interfering git as most of them seem to think by advising them to at least keep a receipt of the transaction but then again for years they have probably considered me as some sort of gibbering fool when I tell them what the odds of winning the lottery against getting killed by tobacco products are..

Virgin Atlantic co-pilot dazzled by laser

Why not get a fucking clue what you are talking about and post under your own name if you are going to make such statements. Moron.

And when some turd does manage to bring down a plane a lot of people will be running around asking why did they not do anything...

In that case get the police to bust the place once a week every week at their busiest time and make life difficult for the useless cunts running the place who are happy to aid and abet this by refusing to pass the CCTV over. Play the fuckers at their own game, that is the only way to deal with morons who know their rights but no idea of their responsibilities.

Move over, Google. Here’s Wikipedia's search engine – full of on-demand smut

Search engines..

I have not used google to search for anything for a long time. I know that they are reliant on ads but to me that is no good, If I look for details on, say, thermal properties of titanium, they would fill the first page with pointless shit that said ''buy thermal properties for titanium locally for less here..'' and similar crap.

I would happily pay for a search utility, be it google, duckduckgo, wiki etc if it did away with this sort of shit and gave me relevant search results as opposed to search results that are relevant only to the people paying to push their shit. most of my need for information such as this is based on my work and is worth money to me.

Sadly, I don;t think that will ever happen as the number of people willing to pay for a better service are dwarfed by the ones that want everything for free an are to fucking stupid to realise that they are the product being sold.

Is hybrid cloud fundamental for your organisation? Tell us, readers!

Yes.

Three scoops 'most reliable network' crown, EE takes every other title

EE Mobile - fucking joke. Where I live, in a small town with a lot of infrastructure and a lot of public sector offices / university / hospital etc. their coverage is shit.

Outside, in smallish mountainous terrain it is even worse. One local village loses all EE connectivity for about a day every few weeks with no fix in sight.

I have what is laughably called a 4g contract. Now and again I get 3g to run for a bit before keeling over or dropping calls and data. I could leave the phone downloading data 24 hours a day and I doubt it would get anywhere near my 2gb data limit per month it is that bloody slow.

I have an android phone which has all the pointless crap removed and the rest of the useless rubbish disabled from updating so should not be down to shit going on in the background.

It would be nice to have a realistic database of what works where and not the 'coverage' statistics put out by marketing pricks.

LinkedIn sinkin': $10bn gone in one day as shares plummet 40%

Waste of space

I signed up with that lot years ago and would have got a pro subscription as it would have been worth while to actually have my professional details there for prospective clients and contacts.

Their useless location procedures would only recognise part of a postcode which located me not only 70 miles away from where I am based geographically but in a different country ( England not Wales.)

I contacted them and explained the situation and told them I could provide an actual address which would have at least listed the town I live in. They were not interested and couldn't see the problem, even when I asked them if they would be happy to pay for a professional service relating to their potential employment that said the were based in Cuba or Canada and not the US.

They couldn't be arsed to answer that so I never went back to them and assumed they were only interested in flinging ads and other such crap at me with no relevance to what I wanted. People like that deserve to fail.

Rooting your Android phone? Google’s rumbled you again

Like a lot of people I just want my phone to work as a phone, have good battery life and pick up emails on a large readable screen. Not interested in games, data grabbing apps, subscriptions to music or films etc.

I have no idea why anyone would use one of the google/ apple / whatever pay systems or the contactless debit cards. A huge security problem in every case and your responsibility to prove you did not make a transaction as there is no secure pin or whatever. All of this at your cost in time etc obviously.

On top of this the phone pay systems have the added benefit of all your transaction details passed on to the fucking leeches ( google / apple etc) to make money from and to inconvenience you with adverts and monetise the data even further.

I will carry on making BACS payments from my secure(ish) pc and pay by Credit Card which at least has some level of accountability and audit. It will be a sad day when I decide that the extra two seconds saved in typing in a secure password over waving a card at a small box with no way of proving that it was indeed a valid transaction.

Retailers urged to create 'CCTV-like' symbol to inform customers of mobile tracking

I would suggest that a large conspicuous logo be placed prominently outside these stores so that I can avoid the fuckers like the plague. It is getting to the stage where almost no aspect of life is untainted by the turds that push ads.

Contrary to the previous poster who said that everyone is susceptible to this crap, I tend to visit shops as and when I need something and for that I will either know exactly what I want or will have a close idea. I don't think I have ever walked into a shop and came out with something I did not set out to buy.

And if these ads pushed ono your device are as useful as the crap you get sent as spam from companies when you have bought something off them, they will be worse than pointless - the number of endless ''hurry !! special offer on our laptops' emails I get for weeks after buying a bloody laptop off them is beyond comprehension.

Volkswagen blames emissions cheating on 'chain of errors'

So, another week , another bunch of excuses from VAG or whatever they are called this week. Why are top people from this organization not jailed ? Is it for the same reason that the bankers who committed fraud etc got away with it ? Minor financial penalties to the company which ends up being foisted onto the customer and in job losses at the bottom end of the sca;e while the arses in charge blunder on.

Microsoft encrypts explanation of borked Windows 10 encryption

I keep all of my work and personal data on a Truecrypt volume on a separate hdd to the OS (W7) As far as I can see this covers my obligations under the data protection acts in the UK and I can display due diligence if there is any data relating to my clients that is leaked online or whatever.

I know it has been shelved and that the tinfoil hat wearers are all concerned about it but for my purposes it does the job. Also means that none of my data is stored on any servers outside the UK and I am not held ransom by the usual mega corporations when they decide to change or bugger up their systems.

Any UK government agency that wants to see what I have got on my disk only needs to ask, any agency outside the UK can go fuck itself, I am not in their jurisdiction.

Edit: Also forgot to add (before I get castigated by a lot of people who presume to know my affairs better than me ) that all of this data is backed up on separate external drives, same encryption, at least 1 jumbo jet width apart. Anything bigger than that which lands on my house will make any back up redundant anyway !

Windows 10 market share growth rate flattens again

Thanks for the response all. I can't afford to go on a volume licensing deal, I work as a sole contractor and I want to be earning money for myself not to support huge greedy multinationals. Also I have no faith whatsoever in MS changing their tactics again and leaving me out of pocket or with large costs. I am more than happy to pay them a fee for sensible working software as I do for my CAD and other specialist packages that cost several hundred pounds a year to maintain.

I have tried CAD in various VM configs before now but it has never been successful. Also have tried different CAD systems but as all my stuff is in DWG and DXF format I have found it difficult to find a system that just works.

May be I just have to retire early..

Re: Query on W10..

Sorry,my comment was badly phrased, The laptop in question is only used for work when I travel, my main work PC is still good for a couple of years on W7. so it is not critical, I have sourced a few W7 laptops that have the grunt required and a proper screen, not the crap 1330 x 760 res ones but they will be in the £800 - £1000 range which is no problem but not what I want to spend until I really have to.

What I should have asked maybe is if there is any scope in being able to avoid this potentially expensive data transfer and risk of an unstable system when I eventually have to buy a new system and it is not possible to obtain anything other than W10.

Query on W10..

A serious question for the ones who know. I have to buy a new laptop due to imminent death of my current one. I spend some time overseas during which I connect to the internet to use webmail and to generally just get on with my work.

Sometimes it will be through a wifi router but sometimes it will be through a local 3g dongle which is a fuckload of cost per mb up/downloaded.

I would be in the 'pleb; range of user, not the enterprise type so what is my options to disable automatic updates, telemetry data etc as this uses up valuable data in terms of cost and time. As I understand, it is not possible unless you just don't go online which is not what I am after.

Additionally, what is my redress when some pointless mandatory update makes my pc refuse to boot / refuse to work with the specific software I use ( Structural design and heat loss analysis along with basic CAD etc )

Please, no irrelevant comments on using Linux /Apple etc as I have specific SW that will only work on Windows ( I have used a lot of Linux disro's in the past and will be having a play with some of the latest ones as soon as I have some more time but this is independent of my work pc's )

The UNTOLD SUCCESS of Microsoft: Yes, it's Windows 7

I have to use Windows for my work, having to run several stupidly expensive software packages that cost me several thousand pounds a year to keep licensed and updated. I don't have the time or inclination to learn a whole new set of shortcuts, commands or whatever just to do my work.

I am far from being stupid or dumb, before the usual commenters come up and tell me it is so easy to just learn dozens of shortcuts, install a pile of thirs party apps etc. I have several qualifications, including some very technical design stuff, a pilot's license and some medical qualifications. I have learnt how to deal with software through necessity as I am self emplpyed and don't have recourse to a huge IT department.

The change from XP to Win 7 meant I had to spend days finding and testing a variety of solutions so that I didn't have to scrap a perfectly working A1 format colour plotter. This lost me hundreds if not thousands of pounds, for no reason other than having to buy a new pc.

Microsoft are in the business of selling software, that is fine. I don't have an issue with them making billions of profit year after year if they can. I have to use their stuff for my work because so many of our governments have rolled over and let them get away with murder in their monopolistic practices in the last 20 years.

For this reason, I accept, reluctantly, that I will have to give them more money when my PC next needs replacement. The issue I have is that they are forcing me to spend thousands on unneccesary hardware or software just to keep working.

The final straw is this abortion of an OS that will cost me a small fortune in lost productivity, trying to resolve driver and hardware issues. Just make a basic OS and let me pay for it. I am happy to do so just in order to get on with my work.

If I could get all of my software to run on Linux I would have done so but currently that is not possible. Roll on an alternative OS that can work with windows based software. either that or roll on retirement so I can dump the whole lot and buy a nice cheap laptop and an open source OS for basic email and browsing.

Reg reader crafts 3-axis GoPro 'Stubilizer' for skull-mounted cameras

Good work..

This has some potential and I applaud your efforts and wish you every success with it ! I use CAD all day in my job and it is really a pig when you have to try and import from various packages to others.

As other paragliders on here have said, the main issue is some kind of weak link for helmet mounting, depending on the type of flying you do.

I use a gopro on a knee mount for acro flying so that I can monitor my wing and hand positions for analysis after landing. I have used a helmet cam before but always with an elasticated tear-off strap and a long safety line to my harness strap so I don't lose the camera. If you have ever seen a fixed helmet cam getting caught up in a pile of loose lines following an asymetric collapse or cravat you know what I mean.

German frau reports for liver transplant clutching bottle of vodka

Re: sad...

I would make sure that anyone who opts out would be ineligible for a transplant. Full Stop. I have been on the organ donor list since 17 when I had my provisional driving license and a blood donor since 18 and being on the bone marrow donor list since about the age of 20 ( I am now in my 50's)

Obvious exceptions would be people who are unable to donate or be on a list due to illness or such restrictions.

Also in relation to deciding who gets a liver, there is the 'Triage' system as used in emergencies such as a crowded casualty ward, a huge accident with multiple casualties and similar, where the casualties are put into a 'queue' depending on various conditions.( Need urget treatment to keep alive, no chance of survival, will be ok for a while.)

That is the very simplified version we would use in casualty care situation in a multiple casualty situation with a SART team.

May not be politically correct and may annoy the Guardian readers but it works.

Margaret Hodge, PAC are scaring off new biz: Treasury source

My simple answer. If all the multinational tax dodgers, leagl or not, were told to fuck off or pay tax, they will pay tax. I suppose 75% of a few billion is still better than 100% of nothing. If they threaten to leave, shedding jobs, then those openings would be taken by small local companies, employing locals and paying tax as they could not afford the top accountants that find loopholes.

If starbucks and the like were all told to piss off I doubt that people will stop buying takeaway coffee etc. They will just use the local shops that sell the stuff.

Does anyone here think that we will ever have a government who will grow enough of a backbone or set off balls to do this ??

Spam drops as legit biz dumps mass email ads: Only the dodgy remain

Spamming emails

It would be good if every company had the same processes in place as Graham Marsden. In my experience, some sites are like this but others will make it as difficult and as confusing as possible to avoid a spam deluge. ''tick here if you want to be sent marketing emails' and 'tick here if you want us not to add you to our mailing list''. Inconsistent and confusing wording..

I will look over as much of the site as I can before buying or ordering anything to make sure I never have emails sent to me unless it is directly connected with that particular order. Sometimes it works, other times I find I missed a tiny tickbox on some obscure page that means the company think they can bombard you with crap and sell your details on.

I really can't see how a reputable company thinks that it will be a good idea emailing me every day or every week with a 'HURRY !!!! BUY NOW!!!! email listing a pile of laptop details when I have just bought a laptop off them. Do they employ morons in their marketing departments ?

I have also come across companies that will tell me, upon asking them why they don't stop sending me emails, that they have a 'relationship ' with me as a customer that means they can do so. One of the worst for this was Dell. I once bought a laptop from them and got an email with 'special offers' on every couple of days and at least two paper flyers a week to my home address even though I had told them to stop on several occasions, by email, by telephone and even in writing by registered post. It took the threat of legal action and trading standards to finally get them to stop. Who the hell in their right mind thinks that this will make me buy anything else off them ever again ?

Facebook will LOSE 80% of its users by 2017 – epidemiological study

Death of FB

I use FB for keeping in touch with friends (People I actually know) in various parts of the world and across different timezones. I use it to serve my purposes when I pass comment etc on various things that go on locally or in the world. I have enough intelligence to know that posts are monitored etc etc and this is why I do post a lot of stuff. Because I need it to get to the people who I am aiming it at.

If teens are leaving in droves, great, if people who are only interested in trendy shite are leaving, great. I would be happy if all the chavs, bad spellers, inane drivel posters, people who suck up bandwidth by reposting stuff, people who post thousands of cat photos, dog photos and other crap and spam posters all dropped out and found an alternative way of annoying people.

I use it to post dates and photos that my contacts and I are interested in and for that I would pay a monthly fee so that I do not have to see pointless adverts and crud such as 'trending articles' that I have no interest in.

I have never and will never spend my money with someone who spams or cold calls me. When I need anything, I will look online for it. I do not need ads to try and persuade me that I need a new pair of shoes or a pointless article telling me that a celebrity has had a new haircut.

I do not expect stuff for free hence my offer to pay FB, Google and others for a valid and useful service. I use a number of utilities to cut out adverts, flash rubbish and other stuff that interferes with my browsing. I do this as I have no other option but if these people offered a 'premium' ad free, crap free service I would go for it.

I stopped using Google, Bing and the big names for searches as they are only interested in what ads they can push at you rather than giving (or selling) you the information you need. It may not be for everyone but would work for me and I would pay a reasonable sum for it.

It is doubtful but if all the morons and hipsters leave FB then they might have to do what the rest of us want or die.