Posts by Zog_but_not_the_first

Think you're all done patching? Not if you have any Apple gear

Meldrew moment

iDon't believe it.

Boffins teach cars to listen for the sound of a wet road

Re: Hmmmm...

I read the article, but I concede that I may have read too much into it. The creeping development of certain systems in cars troubles me. Developments like ABS and traction control are excellent improvements and have saved lives, for sure, but other systems (e.g. "lane awareness") creep into an area where the driver is partially abdicated from the need to drive, but is still required to be in control of the car. In short, driving becomes more like a video game experience IMHO with an increasing disconnect from the real world where hard, sharp and rough things can injure you, your passengers, and other road and pavement users.

I'm not advocating a return to 1920s seat-of-the-pants driving (when motor fatalities were higher, I know) but I believe driver awareness and defensive driving techniques are a better way to proceed.

Hmmmm...

At the risk of sounding harsh, perhaps drivers who can't detect a wet road using their senses shouldn't be driving.

Donald Trump wants Bill Gates to 'close the Internet', Jeff Bezos to pay tax

It's all part of the plan...

To make Jeb Bush look thoughtful, measured and moderate.

Doctor Who: Oh, look! There's a restaurant at the end of the universe in Hell Bent

Re: 4.5 billion years?

"It's a scifi programme BBC, not a pantomime"

Oh no it isn't.

Re: For me this summed up everything that Moffat is getting wrong

Perhaps he should have used some rolls of wallpaper. John Cleese and Connie Booth used this technique to write Fawlty Towers. Sketching out (literally) the plot strands on the paper meant that nothing was introduced without a resolution, and in the end everything (sort of) made sense.

Smart telly, router, app makers have left a security hole open for – drum-roll – three years

Re: Experience not the issue

"But we've sold the TV/toaster/fridge/Barbie/etc., and trousered the profit. Why do we need to do anything else?"

Free HTTPS certs for all – Let's Encrypt opens doors to world+dog

Re: So...

Thanks for clarifying.

So...

Why's The Reg still holding out?

New edition of Windows 10 turns security nightmares into reality

The added convenience of IoT stuff...

... is starting to look like an added inconvenience.

British woman loses £1.6 million to romance scam love rats

@Paratrooping Parrot

Your are, of course right in that these scammers are scum and deserve to be treated as such. Also, I'm sympathetic towards vulnerable victims but I can't help wondering though what these people's friends thought. Most of us are chatty about new relationships - wouldn't friends have expressed notes of caution?

Report: VW execs 'knew' about fuel economy issues last year

Well I never

Keine Scheiße Sherlock

Amazon's new drones powered by Jeremy Clarkson's sarcasm

Skynet

Phase Two

Hello Barbie controversy re-ignited with insecurity claims

Re: The whole problem is the cloud mentality

Have another upvote from me. People who "embrace the cloud" and the service model without thinking about it are idiots. Sorry if you're one of them - I woke up grumpy.

When toys start data mining children's actions this is abuse - no two ways about it.

Doctor Who: The Hybrid finally reveals itself in the epic Heaven Sent

That's more like it.

When I saw the castle walls rotate and the rooms numbered, I thought, "Groan! A Cube knockoff.

But no, that was a cracker. OK, some of the tropes have been used before, but Capaldi was excellent. Plus, it's always good to see Gallifrey* make an appearance. I too spotted some Tom Bakerisms and could have sworn I heard his great sonorous voice at one point.

Looking forward to next week's episode.

On a personal note, does anyone else's life feel a bit like the Doctor-in-the-castle's at times?

* The actors who play the Gallifreyans must curse the Beeb costume designer who came up with those daft outfits. "I'll just look around to see what's happening. Oh no - I can't".

Millions of families hit in toymaker VTech hack – including 200,000+ kids

Yet...

The IoT juggernaut roils on unabated.

Sneaky Microsoft renamed its data slurper before sticking it back in Windows 10

Updates listed?

Is anyone maintaining a list of updates for Wins 7 and 8? I have several updates for Win 7 indicated but not installed until I know exactly what they do. Trust has GONE.

Thai women drugged punters 'with Xanax-spiked nipples' – cops

Re: Très amusant...

Whoa chaps! Just teasing.

Très amusant...

But struggling to find the IT angle.

Why Microsoft yanked its latest Windows 10 update download: It hijacked privacy settings

I think not...

"They spotted it, pulled it, and now communicate their d'oh moment. To me that is ok. No, it should not have happened, yes, it nevertheless did."

So, you catch sight of the bloke in the stripy jumper, wearing an eye mask and carrying a bag labelled "swag" outside of your house. He points to himself and says, "Look at me, what am I like?" and disappears into the bushes.

And that's OK.

I think not.

Randall Munroe spoke to The Reg again. We're habit-forming that way

Randall Munroe and The Reg

Good to know I'm in such illustrious company. In a humble, modest way, of course. Honest.

Windows 10 pilot rollouts will surge in early 2016, says Gartner

But there might be a way...

{sprinkles "stupid powder" into the reservoir.}

Brit filmmaker plans 10hr+ Paint Drying epic

Re: Excellent!

"Bureaucratic Judo."

Excellent observation on a great project.

Blocking out the Sun won't fix climate change – but it could buy us time

Send for...

Kevin Costner!

Roundworm infection increases female fertility

Nomenclature

Roundworm? That's a new name for the trouser snake.

Many UK ecommerce sites allow ‘password’ for logins – report

Re: On the other hand.

I too am annoyed by failure-to-paste but I'm at a loss on what to do with the linked code. Do I edit the web page, run it as a script (how?). Just asking...

DS5: Vive la différence ... oh, and throw away the Citroën badge

Re: I drive a Berlingo.

The only car I've ever been in that had overhead lockers.

Re: Even the ladies are allowed to drive these days

Are the French getting shorter?

Getting? Napoleon? Sarkozy?

Mine's the coat with the arm already in it.

Meh!

When Citroën launched the DS it was revolutionary, jaw-dropingly different and slightly bonkers in a Gallic sort of way. It's a huge pity that car manufactures don't have the courage to try exciting new concepts like that any more. I know, I know: Accountants, financial expediency, global markets rule the game. All the games, actually which give us Hollywood films that "taste" like intellectual gruel.

I had hopes that the renaissance of electric vehicles might throw up some interesting products but even the Tesla is a sort-of E class with leccy motors.

The digital workplace transformation: Sooner than you think

Re: Dystopian nightmare

Well, yes. All those past promises of "so much leisure time it will be hard to fill it" came to.... well I think we know.

Coffee fixes the damage booze did to your liver, study finds

Re: Don't just blame the alcohol

Makes you think.

It does indeed. A couple of months ago a newspaper published an article on the "alarming increase in alcohol-related liver disease" accompanied by an interesting graph. The graph showed a straight-line plot rising from around 1990 to 2012. Disappointingly there was no detailed discussion or analysis of the data, but I bet that women would be strongly represented as the impact of the "we can drink as much as men" and "shots culture" takes its toll.

BUT, behind the straight-line plot was a y=x² curve of all liver disease, presented without comment. I'm wondering if your account throws some light on this.

It worries me that medical science seems to have things so wrong when it comes to basic nutrition (everyday medicine, if you will) on things like fats.

Doctor Who: Nigel Farage-alike bogey beast terrorises in darkly comic Sleep No More

Monsters from the (eye l)id?

Whatever next? The ear wax beast? The nose hair kraken? The toe jam football(er)?

Not to mention Red Dwarf's smeg head.

BBC encourages rebellious Welsh town to move offshore

Re: Public service announcement

Nicely put.

BT reveals vanishingly small detail about its fibre broadband network

I felt a great disturbance in the Force...

"as if millions of forelocks were repeatedly tugged then suddenly realisation dawned. I fear something terrible has happened."

Tramp icon, obviously.

Microsoft rolls out first 'major update' to Windows 10

Re: These Days...

@Peter R. 1

Very unreasonable downvotes in response to an honest view. My experience is pretty much the same as yours - regular assessment but stumbling over issues that make the Linux experience less than the seamless transition many commentators would have you believe that it is.

I find Microsoft's recent change of tack into data mining etc., deeply troubling and I will probably leave them at some point when Windows 7 becomes unsustainable, but Linux isn't there yet. For me at least.

Amazon vendors flog thousands of rooted, malware-laden tablets

Top coders!

"It can install ad applications so they cannot be removed, can uninstall security software and other apps, and will re-install itself if removed."

Now working for Microsoft.

Sarcasm, obviously.

Brits rattle tin for custom LCD Raspberry Pi funbox

Couldn't I get something similar...

... from DK'Tronics?

US military readies drone submarine hunter

Software algorithm?

B4 - Miss

G7 - Hit

Etc.

Net neutrality protestors bundled out of UN conference

Facebook uber alles

Goodwin, I know.

Cement company in sacks out for the lads rumpus

Re: OK

A Spanish Inquisition. I didn't expect that.

Re: OK

Violence against women or anyone else is, of course, a bad thing. But prompted by cartoonish images on bags of cement? Really?

OK

Slightly naff advertising, but aren't we all taking ourselves a bit too seriously these days?

UN privacy head slams 'worse than scary' UK surveillance bill

Re: Vincent Cerf was right.....

"When I was growing up 55 years ago, there was no such thing as "anonymity" or "privacy"."

Have you forgotten about the "net curtain firewall"?

Get an Apple Watch or die warns Tim Cook

Fanboi revisionist poet?

Get an Apple Watch or die

Get an Apple Watch and die

Royal Mail mulls drones for rural deliveries

Postman Pat

Vs. the Red Baron

Microsoft Windows Mobile 10: Uphill battle with 'work in progress'

Re: Oh dear

Years of practice.

Facebook brings creepy ’Minority Report’-style ads one step closer

Never mind Facebook...

What about Govbook?

UK lawmakers warn Blighty to invest more in science, or else

Re: And dont forget

Joking and trolling aside, this is a major factor. Here in the UK, ignorance of science and engineering facts and principles seem to be regarded as a social asset and, presumably, when judged by others of a similar background, a career asset.

Contrast that to Germany.

Utter nonsense

We need more accountants, more bankers, more lawyers, more politicians.

Cryptowall 4.0: Update makes world's worst ransomware worse still

And the open skylight is...

Have the companies or individuals that have fallen victim to this extortion indicated how the attack was made (insofar as they might know)? Dodgy links in dodgy emails? Dodgy web sites? Rouge USB sticks.