Posts by MiguelC

It's ba-ack... UK watchdog publishes age verification proposals

Some catholic expressions are swear words in Québéquois, one might think that church's history in the country might have something to do with it

China gamifies censorship and surveillance with national internet law quiz

There are no wrong answers

Only one-way trip re-education camp-worthy ones

Either the FBI is recruiting in Iran – or some govt Google ad buyers are getting a lousy deal

Re: So ...

In your example, the Iranian site gets a piece of the cash generated by the ad-clicks, so FBI would be indirectly paying Iran :)

Logitech's Wave Keys tries to bend ergonomics without breaking tradition

Re: "although the key travel, which is longer than the laptop-style keyboard I'm accustomed to, could be off-putting"

I, for one, hate with a passion those short-travel keyboards

Japanese tech startups testing cash incentives for office return

My company went form 1 day per week at the office to almost fully WfH, just having some days at the office to meet and greet (depending on teams it might be monthly, others once or twice the whole year) because even the weekly day at the office would be spent, apart from talking to each other in person, which was nice, in Teams meetings with clients - and at home it's a lot easier to do that.

Long-term space missions may make liftoff harder for male astronauts

So where was it the first time you checked?

User read the manual, followed instructions, still couldn't make 'Excel' work

I had the same issue during a PC intro course I was giving, one of the trainees thought of the cord as the little bugger's tail and had it under her wrist. After showing the correct way to use the device, no more problems. And that's the important part, that once taught, people shouldn't need to be schooled again on the same subject!

US govt pays AT&T to let cops search Americans' phone records – 'usually' without a warrant

Re: tying things together

To misquote (or misparaphrase) Benjamin Franklin, those who would give up privacy to purchase a little temporary quietness, deserve neither one nor the other.

IBM-led advertising X-odus gains steam as more flee Musk's platform

Re: Get the popcorn ready

Doing a little research never hurt anyone...

In Texas, the law that protects people from SLAPP lawsuits is called the Texas Citizens Participation Act. It protects your First Amendment rights, such as free speech, the right to petition (ask the government for help), and the right of association. It is often referred to as the “Anti-SLAPP law."

Re: Get the popcorn ready

My be is the lawsuit will not happen. Anti-SLAPP laws would come into action and Xitter and Xitler would end getting their arses whipped.

South Korea opens the door for robots to roam among pedestrians

Korean efficiency

"Less crime. Better crime"

Re: AI remains in its infancy

My wife is getting tired of hearing me mutter "That's not AI!" to myself every so often when listening to the news.... Glad I'm not alone!

Lawyer guilty of arrogance after ignoring tech support

Re: GIF pronunciation controversy

What controversy are you talking about?

I pronounce it 'GIF', don't you?

Tesla Cybertruck no-resale clause vanishes faster than a Model S in Ludicrous Mode

Re: Gotta love offroad capabilities in an EV

Will they revoke warranty if you drive on country roads, like they do to other Teslas?

X fails to remove hate speech over Israel-Gaza conflict

Re: The Met bent the knee during the BLM protests

But they never meant it, it was just a question of optics

Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean AI's not after you

Harmeen Mehta

*She* (otherwise, spot on)

Re: Horses *did* protest

Or lasagna

(icon - to help washing it down)

Passive SSH server private key compromise is real ... for some vulnerable gear

Nobody has found or disclosed such a vulnerability until this moment, but how can anyone guarantee one won't be found? Only fools guarantee their software to be faultless.

Bright spark techie knew the drill and used it to install a power line, but couldn't outsmart an odd electrician

Re: Never trust anything

When I bought my house, more than 15 years ago, I swapped the gas cooker for electric appliances, so the builder's pseudo-electrician prepared the wall sockets (or so I though) and plugged my new electric oven and induction hob. I had then a certified gas technician come to check on the gas pipes and close the one that fed the original gas cooker. Fortunately, he was also a certified electric inspector because, when looking at the hob's installation, he shuddered in disbelief. Apparently, the 7200W hob was connected to the wall socket using a poundland kind of plug, instead of being directly connected to a junction box. He told me the plug would have probably burnt and might have caused a major incident. So I asked him to properly redo the wiring and never had a problem since. Close call...

Microsoft: Iran's cybercrews got stuck into Israel days after Hamas attacked – not in tandem

the Israel-Hamas war is pretty much *not* cyber

Boffins detect direct evidence of atomic oxygen on Venus's day side

Re: Molecule

Even worse, they're just lonely atoms without even a similarly positive friend to share electrons with

This study being done in Germany, instead of a Boeing, couldn't they just have sent a Luftballon?

Wipro: Get back to the office for three days a week or else

Zoom pushed the irony level to 11

CompSci academic thought tech support was useless – until he needed it

Re: "supposed expert who turned out to be anything but"

Hmm. "A little learning is a dang’rous thing"

(and I dislike poetry because I read Pope, not the other way one might dislike poetry)

Trademark fight: Brit biz Threads has a teeny tiny problem with Meta's Threads

And with unlimited media access....

Millions of smart meters will brick it when 2G and 3G turns off

The government want technology to be "future-proof", so choose something currently in use, but not directly under their control. Technology marches on and future will task itself to prove them wrong about the "proof" part.

San Francisco mayor suggests police drones and CCTV can cure city's crime woes

Re: Not the problem

Yes, for the profit of the companies running them, but it's still the taxpayer that foots the bill.

Three dozen plaintiffs join Apple AirTag tracking lawsuit in amended complaint

Re: For Android users

Great minds think alike :)

Workload written by student made millions, ran on unsupported hardware, with zero maintenance

A former - but quite successful - trader friend of mine tells me he doesn't trade at all for himself, that he's d be totally unable to manage risk on his own portfolio. Trading on behalf of customers was just other people's money, his own portfolio is real money.

Your phone's cracked screen may one day heal itself, but try not to drop it for now

I've had tiny scratches on the screen of my phones, but never a cracked screen.

I once lent a used phone to my eldest daughter while her own was in the shop to repair the touch part of the touchscreen. She managed to break the screen the 2nd day she used it and I cannot understand how - I had dropped it several times but the rubber case always seemed to work as intended.

Phones may just dislike being used by teenagers and choose to end their life early...

Researcher bags two-for-one deal on Linux bugs while probing GNOME component

That does it!

I'm tired of this litany of Linux bugs, I'm switching to Windows!!!1!

$17k solid gold Apple Watch goes from Beyoncé's wrist to the obsolete list

Re: Ok

A friend of mine has inherited his grandfather's Patek Philippe wrist watch made in the 1920's and he can still get it serviced if ever there's need to.

Lyft driver takes off with cat, global search ensues

They could do that, but do they care? There are so many stories of criminal actions by Uber/Lyft/Bolt/etc. drivers and awful (if any) responses by those companies and that only media shitstorms make them act.

"Because they value their costumers wellbeing and safety above everything else" boilerplate comment.

You shouldn't be able to buy devices that tamper with diesel truck emissions on eBay, says DoJ

Re: This from a country

Europe as a whole does burn more coal than the U.S., around 60% more (if you consider Russia and Turkey as wholly European countries, and they are the 2nd and 4th worst offenders in Europe), but Europe's population is more than twice that of the U.S. (742 million vs. 340 million)

The U.S. consume a lot more than Europe, per capita - but not as much as Germany, though.

https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Cryptocoin Ponzi scheme AirBit Club co-founder jailed

Re: Investing in Crypto

Cryptocoin Ponzi scheme, but I repeat myself

Twitter, aka X, tops charts for misinformation, EU official says

Re: re: Though for no obvious reason.

Or sport a little ridiculous moustache

Ukraine accuses Russian spies of hunting for war-crime info on its servers

Re: Sounds like a great place to dump

And is being as effective as their invading troops

The iPhone 15 has a Goldilocks issue: Too big or too small. Maybe a case will make it just right

Re: While the world slowly turns n burns.

It is a fine distinction, but one that wasn't very clear...

Call me an Apple fan, says Huawei founder and chief exec

I, for one, am not surprised

politicians struggle to understand how shoelaces can be tied....

Unity closes offices, cancels town hall after threat in wake of runtime fee restructure

Re: Damn!

lisp

You shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds...

This one is pure genious!

When does tackling pandemic misinfo become censorship? US courts argue it out

Re: Fairly obvious answer.

I generally agree with your comment, but the "Frail pensioners should be getting this, but don't force this on healthy 40-year olds" is just your opinion. Many young (even under 40) and previously healthy people had severe symptoms, and even died of it. It turns out that, in countries where healthcare is not a luxury, not taxing public hospitals with unnecessary extra cases was quite important to guarantee better treatment to those who got sick.

If you like to play along with the illusion of privacy, smart devices are a dumb idea

Re: Why would a Washing Machine require my Date of Birth ...

A large concrete block... the videos are amazing though

Windows File Explorer gets nostalgic speed boost thanks to one weird bug

Maybe it causes background telemetry to be disabled by mistake... one can only hope

BOFH: What a beautiful tinfoil hat, Boss!

Re: ECO DECT

All plants eat animals, even if indirectly through organic decomposition.

Unfortunately, it's not only PR people. My ex-previous boss (if wasn't my boss when I first told this tale, unfortunately he is again), who's a former techie, used to routinely unplug the wi-fi AP over his head because he "didn't want radiation around him like that". I tried reasoning with him but utterly failed, as expected. So I used to just plug it again when he wasn't around. WfH just solved that, thankfully.

Microsoft 365 guest accounts + Power Apps = security nightmare

Re: "that shouldn't matter if a company is practicing good access management." That would be true, but it's here that Bargury's experience as co-founder and CTO of Zenity, a low-code/no-code security and governance platform, comes into play: he says many companies aren't.

That's where the problem lies, because if it wasn't PowerApps it would be something else.

New Zealand supermarket's recipe-generating AI takes toxic output to a new level

Re: Second level nerfing

It just made me a "Chocolate Peanut Butter Sausage Surprise", adding tinned peaches, stock, bread, milk and others... after having that stuff, I guess the only thing that might help with the aftertaste is the original "aromatic water"

If you ever want to try it....