Posts by Just Enough

The end really is nigh – for 32-bit Windows 10 on new PCs

Re: Linux desktop for decades

In what way is this relevant?

Microsoft doc formats are the bane of office suites on Linux, SoftMaker's Office 2021 beta may have a solution

Re: Trust Office

"your file is triggering virus warnings for some odd reason"

Sure. Lie to your customers that they may have an undetected virus infection. That's helpful and professional

NHS contact-tracing app is best in the world, says VMware CEO... whose company helped build it

Re: 80%

Yes. Let's give Facebook a justification for their current tracking and an excuse for expanding it. That couldn't possibly be abused in the future because of their past rigorous record of observing personal privacy and data regulations.

If there is one organisation I'm less likely to permit tracking me than the Government, it's Facebook.

Apple owes us big time for bungled display-killing cable design in MacBook Pro kit, lawsuit claims

Even those guys knew

"so common that Apple Genius Bar technicians were easily able to diagnose the cause"

Wait. I thought those guys were supposed to be geniuses? So it wouldn't matter if it was common, those geniuses would easily diagnose it.

Tinfoil hat brigade switches brand allegiance to bog paper

Re: The The

One of those band names created before web searches were given any consideration.

US prez Donald Trump declares America closed to those flying in from Schengen zone over coronavirus woes

Re: Hmm

That right, because only a stupid decision could make a previous stupid decision seem sensible.

What's inside a tech freelancer's backpack? That's right, EVERYTHING

Meeting Time : 1830 A.D.

Meeting notes on paper? Written with a pen? No mention of an ink well, or blotter. And who's topping up the oil lamp and putting coal on the fire?

Oracle staff say Larry Ellison's fundraiser for Trump is against 'company ethics' – Oracle, ethics... what dimension have we fallen into?

You have no ground to ask them not to do it, as a person on the internet, since they are doing this in their own time, using their own funds.

Hey GitLab, the 1970s called and want their sexism back: Saleswomen told to wear short skirts, heels and 'step it up'

Still missing it.

And you seemed to have completely missed my point.

"only hiring attractive women"

I am offended by your assumption that there is a universal measure of attractiveness. What what you, I, any of GitLab's customers, or their interviewers, might consider attractive differs. It is therefore impossible to make it a basis of a selection process. You are insulting all those alternatively-attractive, because they don't conform to your received norm of attractiveness. Please withdraw this statement immediately.

You've also managed to insult every existing GitLab saleperson by suggesting that they were hired based on their appearance and not on their sales acumen. Please withdraw this statement immediately.

Avoiding possibly insulting someone is hard if people are going to pick apart your every word, and decided they're going to be offended on someone else's behalf, isn't it?

Re: bah, humbug, and it's the 60s, not the 70s.

There comes a point in any email where you have to stop worrying who you might be inadvertently excluding. If you're non-binary, should you feel offended by not being mentioned or considered in this email? Well not any more than amputees, both those without fingers and/or feet, those with a high tolerance for heat, those suffering hot flushes, those with a phobia about emails, those who do not drink alcohol, those who have strict dietary restriction that make social functions a minefield, those socially anxious who hate functions, those who are house bound and cannot attend, and those who must return to their kidney dialysis on Tuesday evenings. All of these individuals are totally ignored, without a second's consideration, by this email.

All these people are different from most others. They know they are different. Sometimes that sucks. But they don't demand that the rest of us must forever look out for instances where we are not acknowledging they are different. Otherwise it would become almost impossible to say/write anything without constant caveats and qualifications.

Please note that when I write "say", I mean to communicate in some form, and am in no way excluding those of the mute community or those who, through personal belief, choose to not speak. And when I write "write", it is not my intent to exclude those who are illiterate.

You want a Y2K crash? FINE! Here's a poorly computer

Same as Audits

It's the same story as IT audits. Make sure there's something obvious for the auditors to find, and report on. Preferably something you've already told your boss about months ago. If the auditors don't find something to report, they're liable to inflate something irrelevant into an issue that they can report on. The last thing they want is to have nothing to report on, and nothing to justify their fees.

However, I'd hate anyone to think that this tale is just another example of Y2K panic where nothing happened. Nothing happened because a lot of time and effort went into ensuring it didn't.

Android owners – you'll want to get these latest security patches, especially for this nasty Bluetooth hijack flaw

Re: Have they started to employ Microsoft staff or what?

Yeah. The fanboy crowing that always follows discoveries like this is irritating noise.

No-matter what OS you worship, it is not immune to hacks and exploits. So the partisan jeering when one is found in another is rather pathetic.

Oh ****... Sudo has a 'make anyone root' bug that needs to be patched – if you're unlucky enough to enable pwfeedback

Re: I wonder what Phil Collins thinks...

Well, he's had 35 years to think about it, after this joke was first cracked. He must have a killer of a response by now.

They can't collect your bins or fix your roads. They let Google stalk visitors to their websites. Yes, it's UK local government

Re: Worse than I thought

Use a script blocker. Globally block, as a matter of course, the google and facebook scripts running on all websites. Otherwise you may as well be browsing with them peering over your shoulder, taking notes.

Ten years ago, people would have reckoned your tinfoil hat was on if you did this. But their presence and surveillance all over the internet is insidious.

Yahoo! hack! payout! nearly! approved! and! the! question! is! how! to! spend! 60! cents!?

"they promised to honour all of their existing accounts for life."

If if there's one thing you can depend on... it's a "for life" promise from a company!

UN didn't patch SharePoint, got mega-hacked, covered it up, kept most staff in the dark, finally forced to admit it

Not what happened

"blame the users for not doing their security training"

Where's it say they did that? The reference to the lack of security training was from a 2018 audit, before the hack, and is a perfectly legitimate point for a security audit to make, among a number of others.

"Why am I not surprised?"

Because you didn't read what was said or didn't follow it.

Boris celebrates taking back control of Brexit Britain's immigration – with unlimited immigration program

Re: Good, good.

"include freedom of movement as part of the deal and it will be business as usual"

This will not happen, simply because it will be the UK, as usual, wanting the benefits of the EU without the obligations. The other members of the EU are not idiots. You want to be a member of their club? Then you pay your membership fee and follow the rules like everyone else.

Re: Good, good.

"high calibre engineers, scientists and doctors from around the world"

What makes you think high calibre people are interested in coming to a country that is busy cutting its own throat and is amply demonstrating that foreigners are not welcomed? What makes you think they are not already welcomed in practically any other country in the world?

Verity Stob is 'Disgusted of HG Wells': Time, gentlemen, please

free emotional expression

Alas, a lot of action TV and film now has fallen to the curse of "giving the characters emotional, relatable depth". This means there is no dire situation our heroes can find themselves in where it is not appropriate to stop and discuss their domestic and personal problems and, most importantly, how this makes them feel. Fortunately the bad guys and impeding doom they face have the decency to stop shooting/impeding while this discussion occurs. Yes, they're trying to kill you, but there's simply no excuse for oppressing someone's right to free emotional expression.

Take DOS, stir in some Netware, add a bit of Windows and... it's ALIIIIVE!

long repressed memories

Everything in the story is familiar. I think I'm having PTSD flashbacks now.

Squirrel away a little IT budget for likely Brexit uncertainty, CIOs warned

Re: 2019?

You're forgetting that Brexit policy is fundamentally about returning to 1935 and the return of the Empire, pounds and shillings, inches and yards, randomly shaped bananas and blue passports. This is just reverse gear being engaged. All going to plan, we'll hit 2018 by March.

Step away from that Windows 7 machine, order UK cyber-cops: It's not safe for managing your cash digitally

Re: F.U.D.

My advice to your clients is get the advice of a IT professional who takes security more seriously. An exploit will definitely be found at some point in the future that is not esoteric and difficult. It will be automated, requiring no effort on the part of those distributing it. No one will care whether your clients are a high value target or not, they will worry about this after they are infected/compromised/hijacked.

Meanwhile, expect companies to stop releasing Windows 7 compatible software. Expect their Windows 7 applications to stop getting security patches. This includes manufacturers of anti-virus.

The only hope those who want to stick to Windows 7 have is that they become such a small user-base, that virus writers stop bothering with them. That isn't going to happen over-night, and as of tomorrow they'll be making themselves increasingly vulnerable targets.

Blame of thrones: Those viral vids of PC monitors going blank when people stand up? Static electricity from chairs

Re: For extra fun ...

Which is not what you said on your first post.

Re: For extra fun ...

"I discovered that the average female office worker .. "

No you didn't. You discovered that a female office worker.. Your sample size was too small to reach any other conclusion.

No horrific butterfly keys on this keyboard, just you and your big, dumb fingers

Re: Hello RSI

"Banging your fingers on a desk will cause RSI and make arthritis worse"

So don't bang your fingers. I doubt the force you hit the desk with plays any part in the keyboard working.

I am reminded of touch typists I've worked with, who learnt on typewriters. You sometimes had to politely point out that they didn't have to hammer computer keyboards to make them work.

Microsoft engineer caught up in sudden spate of entirely coincidental grilling of Iranian-Americans at US borders

Re: silly parents

That's right. Kids are dumb and don't suspect a thing when they kept confined for 5 hours while their parents are cross examined. And if their parents betray any emotion about this, other than smiling delight, then that's their fault.

Re: And the consequenques fo failing to act?

So the lesson here is everyone is a threat, no-one is above suspicion. Anyone could be a ISIS sympathiser, a communist, a terrorist. Close the borders, detain everyone, search them, ignore their rights. We must all live in fear and surveillance.

All this must happen, otherwise the terrorists have won. (And Donald may not get re-elected.)

From Soviet to science fiction icon, the weird life of Isaac Asimov 100 years on

frustrating genius

I used to love Asimov as a teenager, but as I got older I became more conscious of his flaws that largely spoiled his work.

His dialogue is clunky for a start. He has an annoying habit of illustrating his points and ideas repeatedly. So you often find characters explaining things to you at exhausting length, yet again, when all the time you were wishing they'd just get on with things. And his characters inter-relationships never sounded real. Just people talking at each other. He also couldn't write female characters for toffee.

There's no doubt he was a genius writer and visionary, but I find reading him frustrating now.

Re: Asimov was a letcher

It's almost a certainty that our great grand children will find aspects of today's behaviour appalling, just as we find aspects of our great grand parent's. And it won't necessarily be the obvious ones that we may already have our suspicions about (e.g. use of fossil fuel, plastic disposal, meat consumption), it'll be things we currently consider entirely innocent.

Equally, there'll be things they get up to that would shock us.

And yet every generation still believes itself to be the pinnacle of righteousness, set aside from the indefensible behaviour of the past.

Medical biz LifeLabs fesses up: Hackers slurped 15 million customer records – and we paid them to hand it all back

Data leaks are not thefts

"it got a copy of the information with a promise from the crooks"

And if there's one thing you can count on, it's a promise from crooks.

I can't fathom why people still treat data leaks as if they're like theft of something physical. You can't "retrieve" your data. It's gone. It's out there, anywhere. And unless the crooks deleted your copy when they took it, and you have no backups, "retrieving" the data is a totally pointless operation, other than as proof they have it, and still have it. Which is not something you need to pay for. The crooks are happy to send you as many copies of the data as you need to prove they have it.

Sir John Redwood backs IR35 campaign, notes review would have to start 'immediately' before new off-payroll working rules kick in

none of these things

"The Right Honourable Sir John Redwood"

That's a whole lot of name that manages to be offensive on just about every step of the way. Is it sarcasm?

Jet2 hacker who deleted every account on UK company's domain cops 5 months in jail

Re: I am not an IT worker of any kind...

His "guests" were probably people he'd just met and had an "arrangement" with. They were probably known to the hotel staff. That's why they were spotted and told to sling their hook.

Never underestimate a drunk idiot's ability to do stupid things.

Cool 'joke', bro, you could have killed someone: Epilepsy Foundation sics cops on sick flashing-light Twitter trolls

Re: Client Problem

"Then the trolls can send what they like, and everyone's happy."

Do we really want to social media platforms to worry about what makes trolls happy?

Revealed: NHS England bosses meet with tech and pharmaceutical giants to discuss price list of millions of Brits' medical data

Re: NHS ...... ENGLAND?????

I wish The Register would stop writing articles about NHS England that presume that what it's doing applies to all of the UK.

NHS England does not have the data of 65 million Brits to sell. I appreciate the very real concerns highlighted, but if you are going to head your story with something that is so factually incorrect, displaying a fundamental misunderstanding of what NHS England is, don't you think it casts a shadow on the accuracy of the rest of the story?

When is an electrical engineer not an engineer? When Arizona's state regulators decide to play word games

Re: But on the other hand...

"stop trying to pass them off as things which they aren't"

Have you ever mistakenly eaten one, when you thought it was the other? Didn't think so.

If you find that your delicate taste buds, or fragile carnivore virility, are threatened by the very idea of mistakenly eating a vegetarian product, I suggest you look at the labelling on them. Vegetarian products almost always go out of their way to make it clear they are vegetarian, because it's important to vegetarians.

Re: But on the other hand...

There is nothing in the etymology of "burger" that stops a burger being veggie. And the term "milk" has long been used to describe liquids of all sorts with a milky appearance. The regulation used to limit these words to certain products of the dairy industry is a transparent case of big-business using law to protect their market from new comers.

Never forget that, no matter what they may say, large companies don't particularly care for free market economics. They'd much prefer monopolies. And if legislators can be bought to provide them...

It’s been two years since net neutrality was killed in the US. Let’s celebrate by having another fight over it

It's partisan the same way right vs wrong is

The second last paragraph on this article puzzles me.

If 70-80% of Americans believe net neutrality is a good idea, why do Democrats need to 'persuade themselves' it's a vote winner? It seems an obvious choice. And why do they need 'cover' from those who 'genuinely' think net neutrality is needed? What makes their enthusiasm for it not genuine? Even if they personally don't care, does not the fact that most voters do care mean that they are merely doing the job they were elected to do? Why should this need 'cover'?

It's the Republicans that need to justify their position, not the Democrats. They have enforced a policy that the vast majority of Americans disagree with, all the while pocketing vast amounts of money from cable business. Yes, the issue has become divided on party lines when it shouldn't be, but that's because one party has pursued a blatantly corrupt policy. Of course they should be called out on it. Repeatedly.

Irish eyes aren't smiling after govt blows €1m on mega-printer too big for parliament's doors

Re: SOP

Komori definitely must bear most of the responsibility here. I presume that the contract with them must have included installation. It's their printer, they are the experts in installing it. They know best what's needed.

Stop us if you've heard this one: Facebook and Twitter profiles silently slurped by shady code

We don't do it, we just make it possible to do

"nor does MobiBurn process or store such data. MobiBurn only facilitates the process"

Oh. That's ok then.

Found on Mars: Alien insects... or whatever the hell this smudge is supposed to be, anyway

Re: No oxygen

"I once found a load of dead ants in a packet of Polo's."

I think I spotted one there, just between the o and the s in "Polos". It couldn't be anything else but an ant. Certainly not an apostrophe.

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Halfords invents radio signals that don't travel at the speed of light

Re: Bitrates and broadcast media.

"who actually listens"

Millions and millions of people. 7.1 million people in the UK listen to any podcast. That's less than the listening figures BBC Radio 1 alone. 88% of the UK listen to live radio.

It's always amusing when someone, keen to impress everyone with their uptake of newer technologies, feign ignorance that everyone isn't the same as them.

Re: Definition

"It is not faster (in the physics sense). "

But the description in question is not a physics lesson. It's trying to describe how digital radio works. It's not done very well, but I think suggestions that they are trying to claim some radio waves travel faster than others is missing the point.

It's worth keeping in mind that when it comes to the quantum world of particles, just about any explanation we use about how things work is based on simplified models that we, in the macro world, can understand. All these models have limitations where they break-down and can be picked apart. Halford's attempt at an explanation is no different.

Labour: Free British broadband for country if we win general election

Re: Paranoid, moi?

If the Government spooks currently want access to broadband, all they have to do is knock on a few doors and it will be provided. The Government does not need to own or run the network to do this.

And if you think that the Chinese, Russians and North Koreans can only dream of owning the internet within their borders, then you are clearly not paying much attention.

Shock! US border cops need 'reasonable suspicion' of a crime before searching your phone, laptop

Re: A CITIZEN'S rights

"Giving those Rights to NON citizens only cheapens their value to those born with them"

How does this happen exactly?

Astroboffins baffled as Curiosity rover takes larger gasps of oxygen in Martian summers

Seasons

"Carbon dioxide freezes over the Martian North and South pole in winter, lowering the air pressure across the planet’s atmosphere."

Is it just me, or does this statement make no sense? Like Earth, Mars has seasons because is tilted on its axis. "Winter" is not a season that exists across the entire planet, and so any lowering of air pressure could only apply to one hemisphere at a time. (If that's even possible.)

Would the freezing of CO2 on one pole not be offset by the melting at the other?

Back-2-school hacking: Kaspersky blames pesky script kiddies for rash of DDoS cyber hooliganism

Victims, not culprits

School and college / universities networks were the majority of the targets of the DDOS, not the networks being used for the DDOS.

In a world of infosec rockstars, shutting down sexual harassment is hard work for victims

Not victim blaming, oh no.

We understand your option 3. "Dude" is not a fault. "Girl" is at fault for not being clear and not accepting it's her responsibility to fix poor nerdy guy's understanding of how relationships work. But you aren't victim blaming.