Posts by Brian Allan 1

Windows 10 Insiders see double as new builds hit the deck – with promises to end Update Rage

I'd just love an update that doesn't screw up something!

Updates have killed my fingerprint reader, memory card reader, main boot drive (on two occasions), reset all my power settings to the default, put my touch pad out of operation, shutdown all of my USB ports, declared all of my astronomy camera drivers as spyware, deleted third party software, reset my home page display, etc. It has taken me days worth of work to recover machines!

I just wish MS would stop with thinking they "own" our PC's!!

bwa

Re: Predictive Fuckups

Wouldn't that be wonderful for a change!!

Elon Musk, his arch nemesis DeepMind swear off AI weapons

Probably the biggest mistake in history!! China, India and Russia (just to name a few) will walk away with this segment of AI and leave everyone else sadly wanting...

Atari accuses El Reg of professional trolling and making stuff up. Welp, here's the interview tape for you to decide...

Hey, retro costs money... If you're willing to gamble!

US Supreme Court blocks internet's escape from state sales taxes

Should have been done years ago!

These tax regulations should have been in place years ago to put everyone on the same playing field!

US websites block netizens in Europe: Why are they ghosting EU? It's not you, it's GDPR

Total B.S.

This whole EU "thing" is simply to say "We did something!". Won't make any difference in the long run!!

Exclusive to all press: Atari launches world's best ever games console

But what will I do with the Atari from decades ago that I'm still using!? Does it have antique value? Will a museum buy it from me? Will its game cartridges work on the new unit?

Cambridge Analytica dismantled for good? Nope: It just changed its name to Emerdata

I'm sure Emerdata Limited will continue its parent's fine reputation for data gathering and analysis!

I've got way too much cash, thinks Jeff Bezos. Hmmm, pay more tax? Pay staff more? Nah, let's just go into space

Hard to blame Bezos for being rich and paying little tax and low employee wages. Sounds like a government problem to me. Simply compare Germany and the USA, and you'll see the reason why!

You're a govt official. You accidentally slap personal info on the web. Quick, blame a kid!

Governments are renown for attracting and retaining idiots; sadly!

What the @#$%&!? Microsoft bans nudity, swearing in Skype, emails, Office 365 docs

What is offensive?

Has MS published a list of words it views as offensive?

Cambridge Analytica 'privatised colonising operation', not a 'legitimate business', says whistleblower

Wylie's 15 minutes of fame...

Wylie enjoys having his name in the news and loves a conspiracy theory...

Regardless of what he knows or imagines, companies like Cambridge Analytica will continue to arise, mine data and make money! Why? Simply because politics (and big business) is all about money, power and corruption at the highest levels.

As for the privacy of your data, if you don't want it hacked/stolen/sold, don't put it in the public domain. If it is out there, it is no longer yours. It belongs to anyone with the resources to mine it!

Uber breaks self-driving car record: First robo-ride to kill a pedestrian

About 3000 people a day die on the roads of America. One due to a self-driving car is insignificant!

BOOM! Cambridge Analytica explodes following extraordinary TV expose

"senior executives from the firm were then shown on camera boasting about the use of dark methods, including honey traps, fake news and sub-contracting with ex-spies to entrap individuals."

All fair when dealing with politics, power, money and corruption! Would one expect anything different!?

Cambridge Analytica CEO suspended – and that's not even the worst news for them today

"Cambridge Analytica is scrambling in the wake of damning media reports"

They couldn't ask for better, inexpensive publicity than this! They're in the business of politics, i.e.: money, power and corruption...

Brit retailer Currys PC World says sorry for Know How scam

Seems like their customer service is in line with the going-out-of-business model!?

Will the defendant please rise? Utah State Bar hunts for sender of topless email

I do hope they keep abreast of the matter...

Symantec ends cheap Norton offer to NRA members

Why the heck would anyone offer the NRA discounts!? Sounds like a dumb idea to begin with!!

Woe Canada: Rather than rise from the ashes, IBM-built C$1bn Phoenix payroll system is going down in flames

What the hell, it is only taxpayer money these idiots are spending so no problem! Keep filling the trough... NEVER, NEVER let government manage any sort of project!!

Stephen Elop and the fall of Nokia revisited

The choice of Windows Phone as the operating system was the downfall! There probably wasn't a worse choice at the time. Android would probably have saved the company.

Astro-boffinry world rocked to its very core: Shock as Andromeda found to be not much bigger than Milky Way

Not confirmed yet!

Let's wait for the peer review of this research before downgrading Andromeda! A lot of things can happen between original opinions and final reviewed results...

A Hughes failure: Flat Earther rocketeer can't get it up yet again

California is the home of weird people!

It took us less than 30 seconds to find banned 'deepfake' AI smut on the internet

The technology is available. It will be used. And the porn industry is one of the first to use the latest technology...

No Windows 10, no Office 2019, says Microsoft

Still running Office 2003 on all our Windows platforms and quite happy with it!

bwa

FYI: There's now an AI app that generates convincing fake smut vids using celebs' faces

Isn't technology wonderful!

Perv raided college girls' online accounts for nude snaps – by cracking their security questions

No device is really safe from hacking, just depends on the determination of the hacker! I hope the pix he acquired were worth six months in jail and the huge fine!?

Memo man Damore is back – with lawyers: Now Google sued for 'punishing' white men

He's probably 100% correct in his comments if Google does indeed use a quota system for hiring. Quota systems do not attract the best employees; never have; never will. One simply has to look at the public service where the quota system is most obviously shown to be the wrong approach!

FBI says it can't unlock 8,000 encrypted devices, demands backdoors for America's 'public safety'

What a laugh! "backdoors in encryption exclusively for law enforcement" essentially gives law enforcement and criminals access. Not the best of ideas! The FBI would soon be complaining people have access to information on their devices and want the backdoors closed!!

WikiLeave? Assange tipped for Ecuadorian eviction

The USA should be furious their security allowed this data leak. Assange should be given a medal for showing the holes in the US system(s).

Transport pundit Christian Wolmar on why the driverless car is on a 'road to nowhere'

Safe self-driving vehicles will only be viable when the AI operating them is equivalent or better than a human driver.

1 in 5 STEM bros whinge they can't catch a break in tech world they run

Quota systems degrade company profitability! Hire the best, regardless of gender or race.

Women reboot gender discrimination lawsuit against Google

Men and women are different as if anyone didn't already know this! Isn't it just possible the women involved were paid what they were worth to the company!?

Whizzes' lithium-iron-oxide battery 'octuples' capacity on the cheap

Research results and real world results are often miles apart. Wait for the field test results before buying stock!

Big shock: $700 Internet-of-Things door lock not a success

"It's a shame, because to hear Jadallah tell it, Otto somehow made opening the front door a life-altering experience."

Another con artist project! $700 for a door lock!? About the same as $700 toilet seats for the navy? And a toilet seat is probably more practical!

Ex-Microsoft intern claimed one of her fellow temps raped her. Her bosses hired him

"At the end of the evening, the woman had passed out in the basement of a shared home where her colleague was staying, and woke, naked, with flashbacks of being “forcibly penetrated" by her coworker, according to the letter."

So, what really happened!? It seems to be all a blur. Did she consent? Was she raped? Hell, no one knows what happened...

Disk drive fired 'Frisbees of death' across data centre after storage admin crossed his wires

I do fondly remember these drives; however, ours had whopping 300 MB disk packs. And the air conditioner was larger than the computer room!!

Royal Navy destroyer leaves Middle East due to propeller problems

Sad! The Royal Navy was ONCE the envy of all global powers; no longer!!

Sci-Hub domains inactive following court order

Science for the masses! What a totally idiotic way of not getting science out there!

All science should be free and easily accessed!

Official: Perl the most hated programming language, say devs

Nothing wrong with Perl or PHP. You just hate a language because you don't understand it!

Tesla share crash amid Republican bid to kill off electric car tax break

If the electric car industry can't make it on its own, too bad! Put them on an even playing field with other vehicles and let them compete for their sales.

Donald, YOU'RE FIRED: Rogue Twitter worker quits, deletes President Trump's account

If we could delete his Twitter account permanently, the world would be a far better place!!

Interstellar space rock screams through Solar System

"Sadly for those hoping it's an alien probe, it shows no signs of stopping for a chat."

It has probably captured all the information it needs regarding Earth and our solar system...

Forget the 'simulated universe', say boffins, no simulator could hit the required scale

A total lack of imagination of what technology could accomplish in a thousand, million or billion years! Look at what has been accomplished in the past hundred years...

Hipster disruptor? Never trust a well-groomed caveman with your clams

Enjoyable read this fine friday!

Boffin wins (Ig) Nobel prize asking if cats can be liquid

The Babypod speaker could add a whole new meaning to the sounds of orgasm!!

Google sued for paying women less than men

People will always think they deserve more $$$'s! In most cases the ones complaining are the ones who really deserve the lower salary.

US Navy suffers third ship collision this year

For a navy that claims to be able to fire an intelligent missile that can strike within 10m of its intended target not be able to navigate through commercial ship traffic is totally ridiculous!! Making America Great Again one ship collision at a time! Sure looks like American technology is working far below acceptable standards!?

El Reg gets schooled on why SSDs will NOT kill off the trusty hard drive

Ultimately something with no moving parts will replace HDD's; not sure what?

I've lived through the eras of paper tape, punch cards, magnetic cards, magnetic tape (in many flavors), floppies (in many flavors), HDD's (in many flavors), CD's, DVD's and SSD's. All of which had their time in the marketplace. At some point something will replace HDD's and even SSD's. Technology marches on and new tech becomes old tech...

Raising minimum wage will raise something else: An army of robots taking away folks' jobs

"Yet Neumark, in a phone interview with The Register, scoffed at the notion of robot-driven mass unemployment. "There's an age old debate about automation and jobs," he said. "If we believed what that debate had to say, then no one would have a job anymore.""

Another dinosaur ignoring the coming problem! Automation may very well make the majority of humans un (or under) employed, particularly those with little or no serious education.

FYI: Web ad fraud looks really bad. Like, really, really bad. Bigly bad

"Reach 'em: drop our sales team a line."

A true sales/marketing line used far too often by both legit and illegit marketeers!