Posts by PhillW

Palantir wins £9M contract to run UK firearms licensing: CIA-backed biz to hold gun, bomb, and poison records

Palantir...... the C(R)apita of public service software with super turbo charged data slurp....

Microsoft slaps new coat of paint on Copilot, buries annoying button

He sounds like he is touting for a position in the Trump administration....

Trump surprises with TSMC $300B investment claim

Loads of incoming shorting.....

Data-breached Guntrader website calls in liquidators, is reborn as Guntrader 2 Ltd

This just seems to be some plaything of the landed gentry:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03413836/officers

I count only about 2 chins amongst that lot.

Intel's €80bn European chip plant investment plan not bound for UK because Brexit

Re: Deal done

But that then means they can freely sell to all EU countries.

If they were built in the UK, the 'red tape' would need to be done before selling to the EU.

Microsoft does and doesn't want you to know it won't stop you manually installing Windows 11 on older PCs

99.8%

Have I got my maths right here?

Microsoft claims "devices that do meet the minimum system requirements had a 99.8% crash free experience," and those that did not "had 52% more kernel mode crashes."

So, supported hardware has a crash rate of 0.2%, non-supported hardware has 52% more crashes.

52% more of 0.2% is only 0.3% ..................... So basically, it is no worse on older hardware than newer?

'Biggest data grab' in NHS history stuffs GP records in a central store for 'research' – and the time to opt out is now

Re: Get your tin foil hat on!

Not if they sell it on and US private health companies start to use it to cherry pick which GP practices they offer to run for the NHS (at a tidy profit and with lots of healthy patients to not treat).

Sod that.

link for online opt out.

https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/

Ministry of Defence tells contractors not to answer certain UK census questions over security fears

MOD now swarming

with Jedi.

Looks like they may have to provide prayer rooms for them, facing achooo or whatever it is.

'Following the science' rhetoric led to delay to UK COVID-19 lockdown, face mask rules

SAGE

Would that be the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies meetings that Dominic Cummings regularly attended?

The day I took down the data centre- I mean, the day I saved the day. Right, boss?

Ever screwed something up

so badly that the only way out of a P45 and the march of shame was via the medium of spin?

Who ya' gonna call?

Four Seasons Total Landscaping

Microsoft runs a data centre on hydrogen for 48 whole hours, reckons it could kick hydrocarbon habit by 2030

Big batteries

The hydrogen as a fuel cycle is quite inefficient.

Great big flow batteries............ that's what you need.

Scalable

No fire risk

Good lifetime

Completely recyclable

Can be made from readily available materials

Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman calls on UK govt to legally protect data from contact-tracing apps

Redirect

Wow,

For a moment I thought I'd been redirected to the Daily Fail's comments section.

So, do I

a) instigate the next lot of gammony frothing by mentioning the EUSSR

b) Go and find some informed debate about the app.

Mines a b

Windows takes a tumble in the land of the Big Mac and Bacon Double Cheeseburger

Re: Wash your hands

And how do you let yourself out of the toilet after washing them?

Hope that some other germ dodger opens the door for you?

Me, I always take a raggy urchin with me and smash their head against the screen........

Not true actually, not been into one of their shitholes since 1988 and proud!

Socket to the energy bill: 5-bed home with stupid number of power outlets leaves us asking... why?

That's an awful lot of sockets for a bunch of brickies?

(unless they were training up their sparkies)

Nature of business (SIC)

41201 - Construction of commercial buildings

43120 - Site preparation

43390 - Other building completion and finishing

Dodgy call centre anyone?

Re: Forget the risk of fire spreading through the holes in the wall

Try walking past ANY new build site in the UK....... Timber frames.

Baffled by bogus charges on your Amazon account? It may be the work of a crook's phantom gadget

Re: Cancel the account challenge

Or, just do as I have and never buy anything from Amazon....... Never found anything I wanted that I can't get for a better or similar price elsewhere.

Yeah I know I can be ripped off there too, but Amazon are just a bunch of crooks, why should they go stomping on other crooks toes?

PowerPoint! Word! Excel! Lens! By your powers combined, I am Captain Mobile Office

All the sorts of things you would have previously used a pen + A6 notepad for................ then not pissed about on twatter and freakbook for the next 2 hours.

All on company time like................ Can't have the UK rocketing up the productivity league now can we.

Delayed, over-budget smart meters will be helpful – when Blighty enters 'Star Trek phase'

Re: Great

Or spend an afternoon knocking one up for yourself?

Did a variation to divert excess solar into the immersion tank, knocked 1/3 off the econ 7.

https://learn.openenergymonitor.org/electricity-monitoring/ctac/how-to-build-an-arduino-energy-monitor

Would they not be acting as insulation?

Could be not install a Boris in each building to provide the hot air heating?

A Farage in every cellar to provide the bullshit to convert to methane for cooking?

An unbearable itch to migrate your OS to the cloud? You might have a case of Windows VD

Demise of Win 7

Gave me an unbearable itch and I changed it to a bearable ditch..... now happily running Linux.

GIMP open source image editor forked to fix 'problematic' name

A Boaty McBoatface moment

compo time:

What would YOU rename GIMP to?

Hull be damned: KCOM shuts shop as UK High Court waves through £627m Macquarie deal

Macquarie

Hope they make a better job of it than their hospital!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-49225869

'Transformation' at Capita: Profits? Down. Revenue? Down. Order book? You guessed it

Profits down, exec bonuses?

Penny to a pound of pigshit the board will receive a lovely bonus and top up into the pension pot at the end of the year for the excellent work they have done*

*shortly before 2000+ grunts get the heave ho.

New British Army psyops unit fires rebrandogun, smoke clears to reveal... I'm sorry, Dave...

Re: The internet was a nice friendly, honest place ...

I'd have said inside a sandbox, but with this bunch of retards, just a sandpit will do.

Amazon: Carbon emissions from our Australian bit barns aren't for public viewing

Re: Pardon me sir.....

I make it 42%, but will stand corrected if wrong

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Renewable_energy_statistics

Re: Not really sure...

"Elsie......Elsie......."

"What?"

"Bobs, not taken his meds again"

"OK, I'll get the taser"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I could *EASILY* disprove the entire CO2-global-climate-bullcrap thing with a can of soda and the CO2 infrared absorption spectrum and a handful of other relevant scientific facts..."

oooh, please do!

Maker of US border's license-plate scanning tech ransacked by hacker, blueprints and files dumped online

Re: snatch.....

Here I am trying to shake a hangover off and I start reading this comment thread........ I think Gove must have spiked my drink last night.

WTF happened here..........

Nice words tho:- "You can keep your guns, and the fear you carry around with them", lovely!

It's official! The Register is fake news… according to .uk overlord Nominet. Just a few problems with that claim, though

Most Trumpian use of words

"In this case, the elected members had potential conflicts, and therefore were not involved in the design of the system we decided upon."

Nominet CEO: "Boy, go away and come up with 3 ways we can offload these domains"

Office Jr: "Sir, I came up with these 3:

System 1: Fair and equitable distribution of domains

System 2: All affected companies given first shout on domains

System 3: Hoover up all the domain names and sell them on at vastly inflated prices"

Nominet CEO: "Excellent, WE will have system 3, off back to your desk with you!"

These slimy POS's must have been looking closely at how 'sir' philip green does business.

Tech giants get antsy in Northern Virginia: Give us renewable power, there's a planet to save... and PR to harvest

Re: Money Talks

turbines killing birds: The RSPB has stated that the downside of turbines killing birds is less of an issue than the downside of climate change and they are happy for turbines to be built, not in known migration routes though.

"Any more than about 5 to 6% unreliable renewables and you need an equal amount of reliable power backup": Id be happy for there to be backup for the odd occasion that there is insufficient wind/solar. A bit like having a fire service, there when you need them and happy to pay for them to be there.

If, in the UK, the grid and generation was state owned then you could have Govt built renewables and fossil backup. Renewable generation being effectively free would generate the money to pay for the (mostly) idle backup.

Google jumps the shark from search results to your camera: Nest Hub, Pixels, and more from ad giant's coder confab

"We recognize that we’re a guest in your home, and we respect and appreciate that invitation" some google buffy.

"Some traditions hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless he or she is invited in. This concept has been referenced throughout the history of vampire fiction (from Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's poem Christabel , through Bram Stoker 's novel Dracula to Stephen King 's novel Salem's Lot , and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer ). Generally, however, a vampire can come and go at will after being invited once." http://dracula.cc/vampires_traits/

Expect to be drained of your blood any time soon!

What today links Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram – apart from being run by monopolistic personal data harvesters?

Re: Twitter down?

Does that mean that the Ruskies could launch their nukes and the Great Orange one will be saying "Fake News" to all his staffers because it was not on Twitter?

Northern UK smart meter rollout is too slow, snarls MPs' committee

payback

So a smart meter costs about £300 all in.

Insulating a loft will cost about the same and will save approx £180 a year.

If you already have loft insulation they could spend about £150 kitting out your whole house with LED bulbs and that will save you about £200 a year.

If you have loft insulation AND you already got LED bulbs they could offer you:

A subsidy to get cavity wall insulation saving about £140 a year

A subsidy to upgrade to a condensing boiler saving £300 a year

A subsidy to put in solar panels if applicable

(I fitted a diverter to use excess leccy to heat the hot water (Economy 7) and saw our leccy use drop by 1/3)

Oh, and on behalf of meter readers everywhere, it also means they get to keep their jobs!

NHS England digital boss in hot water over 'puff piece' written about her future employer

Do you have the same view about the fire service? "They sit around watching TV, and sleeping while on duty"

About the Police? "Just wander around the streets and sit in cars"

The Army? "Just play with guns all day"

You really are a prick of the first order.

Me? Happy to pay 100x what I take out of the NHS, the health of my fellow citizens means I can enjoy a fairly smooth and trouble free life.

Unsure why you can't log into Office 365? So is Microsoft

Sillycon Valley

I am so pinching that one

Memo to Microsoft: Windows 10 is broken, and the fixes can't wait

Re: Please Please

For astronomy purposes, can you set your working hours for windows update to during the night to prevent the updates interfering with your imaging?

Err.............. astronomy............. stars................. night

Entire Bing user-base

What, both them?

UK.gov to press ahead with online smut checks (but expects £10m in legals in year 1)

Not as pervy as running through the wheat fields though!

UK.gov to tech industry: Hands up who can help cut teachers' admin

It is impossible to sack bad teachers.....

Oh dear, has the newsagent not delivered your Daily Heil yet and you have nothing to froth at this morning?

"It is impossible to sack bad teachers"

That is just a downright lie, there are proper procedures in place to sack teachers and plenty are.

"Generally any policy teachers oppose will be good for pupils, parents, taxpayers, everyone."

You mean like academisation and free schools?

"Converting schools into academies has cost the government £745 million since 2010-11. £81 million was spent on conversion in 2016-17 alone."

"According to the National Audit Office, the Government’s free school programme has run up a bill of billions of pounds due to staggering procurement and construction costs.

Originally allocated £450m in 2011 by the then Education Secretary Michael Gove, the spending watchdog warns that the programme will now cost £9.7bn by 2021 - with the Government facing a bill of £2.5bn just to purchase the land needed to build them.

Published today, the NAO’s school spending report revealed that £850m has already been spent on land acquisitions for free schools over the last five years, with officials paying “premium” prices in many cases due to a shortage of alternative sites.

On average, the Government had paid 19 percent more than official land valuations for new sites, with the four most expensive developments costing £120m to secure."

Back to reading Trump tweets with you........... SAD!!!

Underfunding is the biggest problem schools face

It is and the Govt response is to "ask the tech industry to help", as has been said earlier what that will mean is that the usual suspects will hoover up the cash....... c(r)apita.

That money will come from the DFE central budget, which will mean less dosh per pupil filtered down to schools.

I see the problem as:

Govt say "Raise standards" and instruct ofsted to kick the backside of any school that does not do it.

Senior leaders in schools brick it and pay consultants to tell them how to ensure ofsted will leave happy.

Consultants (it may even be singular, as all SLT I have had contact with seem to have all seen the same powerpoint) put in place a whole swathe of 'systems and procedures' that the SLT have no idea how to implement properly, but the just chuck time (and therefore money) at it anyway.

Teachers run around like blue arsed flies filling in forms, gathering data, testing and re-testing to show that the poor kids make progress every second of every day, with the threat of diciplinary action if they do not.

The kids are under pressure constantly, from primary school up, this results in more mental health problems.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/14/mental-health-referrals-in-english-schools-rise-sharply-nspcc

And then on to Uni....

"The number of students dropping out with mental health problems has more than trebled in recent years, while the number of suicides among full-time students in England and Wales has jumped from 75 in 2007 to 134 in 2015."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-universities-mental-health-services-student-suicides-nhs-a8348201.html

Education is and should always be about more that raw exam figures, sadly, that is the sole driver these days.

Russia appears to be 'live testing' cyber attacks – Former UK spy boss Robert Hannigan

Re: More FUD

"I think that our AC above has no idea how much a yacht costs, or any idea how little a civil servant can earn even at the highest employment grades..."

Dunno what you are paid but £117k sound like a shed load from where I'm looking.

Might not buy a Yacht, but it will get you a cosy retirement and if you can top it up with after dinner speaking (Think George Osborne @£500k/year).

"April 2014 ASHE report gives median gross annual earnings of £22,044 for all employees and £27,195 for full-time employees."

"According to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), average gross annual earnings for full-time employees was £27,600 in 2015"

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/583819/FOI2016-26337_grade_salary_bands.pdf

Open justice FTW! El Reg fought the law – and El Reg won

Another one on the blacklist

Ta Ta Aria, used to buy stuff from you............. now you are on the same list as Amazon,

What's silent but violent and costs $250m? Yes, it's Lockheed Martin's super-quiet, supersonic X-plane for NASA

Or just "unusually long assembly time" costing the US Govt $millions per year, forever..........

Microsoft patches patch for Meltdown bug patch: Windows 7, Server 2008 rushed an emergency fix

So how come, if it such an important update, that windows update is not picking it up? (as of 8:30 on 31st march)

Hansa down, this is cool: How Dutch cops snatched the wheel of dark web charabanc

Re: Credit where its due...

Eh?

How much of a "drug problem" is booze? and that is taxed to feck.

First shots at South Korea could herald malware campaign of Olympic proportions

Re: "Malicious Microsoft Word document"?

errr..... the ability to sell a product based upon macros?

No Windows 10, no Office 2019, says Microsoft

Re: What's a

speak for yourself mate............. I'd poke anything!

.UK overseer Nominet abandons its own charitable foundation – and why this matters

Why do you have to pay people 800 grand to decide which good causes should get 3200grand

Jobs for the boys innit.

"In November 2015, the org raised its prices by 50 per cent citing vague "additional costs.""

"Director pay has increased a remarkable 14.5 per cent each year since 2002."

Why would you want some mucky 'charity' getting a slice of what he assumes is, by birthright, his?

Make me want to vote for Jeremy Corbyn......... I'd vote for Genghis Kahn if he stood on a ticket of bringing shysters like this to book!

Microsoft patches Windows to cool off Intel's Meltdown – wait, antivirus? Slow your roll

Re: Huge Baby Huge

If it is the Win 10 update, I checked its in excess of 900MB........ once upon a day that was about 3 O/S installs :-(

900MB for an update............ wft?

Tor blimey, guv'nor: Firefox to try on privacy tool's Canvas gloves to leave fewer fingerprints

Re: Back to 1994

To be honest, with the amount of crap flashing around the periphery of most web pages these days........ I'd almost look forward to 1994 style webpages, at least I'd get to read what I want without having to wait or scroll around all the time!