Posts by macjules

Conflict of interest? We've heard of it. Amazon on selection panel to choose UK.gov's chief digi officer

Gurr is exiting Amazon later this year to become the director of the Natural History Museum.

From one dinosaur to another.

Where you see pandemic, IBM sees opportunity... as long as UK.gov keeps propping up the economy with taxpayers' cash

Where you see pandemic, IBM sees opportunity.

"Where you see pandemic, IBM sees redundancy."

FTFY

US Air Force shows off latest all-electric flying car, says it 'might seem straight out of a Hollywood movie'

Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.

Yesterday we had US Fusion reactors, today we have flying cars. They must be showing all episodes of Back to the Future in the Pentagon.

Re: OK i get it, its a demonstrator but...

... I really dont see any use case for a reasonably likely flying car to the military.

Precisely. But there might well be a need for funding something that they would much rather was not known about. So money can be approved for this and spent elsewhere.

Uncle Sam to blow millions on getting fusion power finally working – with the help of AI

Re: But how long will it take to get there?

In other news: USA to buy all the Singer sewing machines back from Saudi Arabia in the hope that they contain sufficient Red Mercury to run the new Boeing fusion reactors.

‘IT professionals increasingly define themselves by capabilities they excel at managing’ says Atlassian chap

Re: Not surprising

I do not know anyone at all who describes themselves as an “IT Professional” and come to think of it I do not think I have ever heard it used outside of people who suffer from the Dunning–Kruger effect.

Putting the d'oh! in Adobe: 'Years of photos' permanently wiped from iPhones, iPads by bad Lightroom app update

Re: Class action suit in 3... 2... 1...

Sadly the usual response.

Re: Class action suit in 3... 2... 1...

Simple Adobe response, "You do have backup to Adobe Cloud don't you? Don't you? Oh, we did offer it to you."

Global network controlled by erratic billionaire Qracks down on Qanon Qranks

Many are not really ‘cranks’ but even worse ‘concerned citizens‘. Take a look at this article in The Alantic for example.

Capita: We were juuust about to generate revenue growth and sustainable cash flow – then pandemic stuffed it up

"managing our way through the crisis,"

"Instead, we have had to focus on managing our way through the crisis, while accelerating some strategic decisions .."

In BOFH-speak that translates as "Can you just stand a bit nearer to the window please?"

Ex-Apple engineer lifts lid on Uncle Sam's top-secret plan to turn customized iPod into 'Geiger counter'

Not supposed to tell anyone you have been subject to OSA.

Dido 'Queen of Carnage' Harding to lead UK's Institute for Health Protection because Test and Trace went so well

Re: Failing upwards

Yeah, strange that: her husband for years has been calling for an end to PHE. Then all of a sudden his missus gets a top job in the NHS and look what happens.

National Institute for Health Protection will be operational from next spring.

A lot of people could die before then. Wonder if Dido even cares.

Ave! Duci Novo, similis duci seneca!

Oh what a feeling: New Toyotas will upload data to AWS to help create custom insurance premiums based on driver behaviour

Re: That's settled, then.

I worked on the Toyota UK service API a few years ago. Realised that even after NCC had pentested the site that you could call up any car owner's details via /content/firstname-lastname and it would reveal not only their personal data but also the full vehicle history. Fixed the hole but I noticed that nobody went back to NCC and asked them how that one slipped by.

Farewell to notches and hole-punches? ZTE expected to announce mobe with under-display camera next month

Re: I would be happy with a no selfie phone

Yes, but you are probably not a chronically self-obsessed teenager who must always be sending selfies to various boy/girl friends at 2am. My eldest refuses to put her phone on silent (imagine that for 5 months lockdown) and we can hear every time her friends send another picture .. I often wonder if they sleep at all.

Pen Test Partners: Boeing 747s receive critical software updates over 3.5" floppy disks

Re: King's Quest

Worse than that: try the Mac Baldur's Gate 2 6x CD installer set that does not actually work in sequence but sometimes asks you to install Disk 3, followed by Disk 6 etc.

Donald Trump thought-bubbles an Alibaba ban as Chinese clouds clam up about Clean Cloud plan

Some good news then ..

The bad news: Trump is banning Alibaba

The good news: He is sending the notification via USPS

NHS tests COVID-19 contact-tracing app that may actually work properly – EU neighbors lent a helping hand

" ..and can scan QR codes placed on buildings to automatically check-in at those locations, "

Wow, one day they might even use something that could triangulate your location from satellites and tell you exactly where you are.

Well, what are we waiting for? Three weeks later, Windows Embedded Standard 7 still didn't have the answer

Re: Remember when there was talk of Windows in cars?

"Steering wheel could not be found. Hit any key to continue"

Trump administration reportedly offers Oracle cheap end to $400m wage discrimination case

Eugene Scalia

Terrible that Lizard folk do not even bother to change their names under the Trump regime.

Snortical warfare: Wild boar launches amphibious assault against German beachgoers

Poor boar

He was only annoyed because the Germans were hogging the beach as usual.

Xiaomi turns 10 and celebrates by sitting down to relax in front of its new transparent television

Old technology

Scotty already sold Transparent Aluminum to Plexicorp over 30 years ago.

Steve Wozniak at 70: Here's to the bloke behind Apple who wasn't a complete... turtleneck

Happy 70th Birthday Woz

Happy 70th Birthday Woz

01001000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 00110111 00110000 01110100 01101000 00100000 01000010 01101001 01110010 01110100 01101000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01010111 01101111 01111010 00100001 00100000 01001011 01100101 01100101 01110000 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100001

Peer-to-peer takes on a whole new meaning when used to spy on 3.7 million or more cameras, other IoT gear

Re: Just Skynet

One man's vulnerability is another sentient artificial intelligence's opportunity.

FTFY

Trump administration labels WeChat, TikTok ‘threats’ to national security, bans transactions with both

Re: The DeathStar analogy is apt...

Please don't insult Vogon culture: Trump can not write poetry.

USA decides to cleanse local networks of anything Chinese under new five-point national data security plan

Re: Cleaned from Chinese Intrusions? How about the TLAs of the USA and THEIR intrusions...

Or, as the late Benny Hill put it, "You stupid iriot"

UK data watchdog having a hard time making GDPR fines stick: Marriott scores another extension, BA prepares to pay 11% of £183m penalty threat

Re: So net loss to the taxpayer

I can just see how this goes:

1) ICO Commissioner resigns and is boosted to HoL

2) Baroness Harding, fresh from the TalkTalk Track 'N Trace fiasco takes over

3) ICO sequester several BA jets in attempt to get the money

4) Nobody wants to buy them except BA who offer 5% as a buyback.

Self-driving car supremo Anthony Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in the clink for stealing trade secrets from Google's Waymo

“Why I went to federal prison,”

That is absolutely brilliant. I wish we had something like that here in the UK.

You think the UK coronavirus outbreak was bad? Just wait till winter: Study shows test-and-trace system is failing

If a rule or piece of local bureaucracy gets in the way of this ..

If a rule or piece of local bureaucracy gets in the way of this, let NHSX know and Capita Sopra Serco will fix it for you.

There, FTFY.

Microsoft confirms pursuit of TikTok after Satya Nadella chats to Donald Trump

Re: Looks like Donnie the Don

Think it might just be a way for Trump to try and stop all those Sarah Cooper parody videos on TikTok.

Firefighters to UK Home Office: Yeah, maybe don't turn off emergency comms network before replacement is ready

Re: "Anyone surprised at the gigantean cock-up"

Acceptance Criteria? If this is 'normal' Capita then 95% SRA is ok. On 1000 emergency calls that is a lot of dead people.

Two large flightless birds walk into a bar... The pub's owner was not emused *ba-dum tsh*

Re: Cross-species sentiment detected

Failing that, a bucket of water or a box of tissues.

At historic Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google CEOs hearing, congressmen ramble, congresswomen home in on tech market abuse

But he has the +3 Reptilian Defence Cap on. Prevents the brain from overheating in the presence of Upright Monkeys by translating everything as, "I do not know the answer to that question".

Chinese ambassador to UK threatens to withdraw Huawei, £3bn investment if comms giant banned from building 5G

Oh come on El Reg!

Kat would have had that one off pat:

"It's Huawei or the highway"

Virgin Galactic reveals giant mirror feature in cabin design for Beardy Branson's space bus

So many delays

Perhaps Branson should take on Crossrail as well.

Only EU can help us, pleads Slack as it slings competition complaint against Microsoft Teams

Agree, but Slack does have its uses, provided that do not need video or (TBH) audio conferencing thrown in. Slack's webhooks are easier to implement than Teams and Teams also has an issue where updates can throw out your channel hook scripts: meaning that you have to rewrite them.

As a way of avoiding Teams then Slack combined with Hangouts works quite well I find.

Don't strain yourself, Zuck, only democracy at stake... Facebook makes half-hearted effort to flag election lies by President Trump

Re: why aren't postal votes considered a fraud risk in the US?

Not that widespread, but still a cause for concern.

Capita's bespoke British Army recruiting IT cost military 25k applicants after switch-on

Re: Next step: outsource the whole military to Capita...

We would end up with a new definition of BYOD - Bring Your Own Defence

Only surprise for OnePlus fans with firm's latest tilt at the mid-market is a sub-€400 price tag

Heavily leaked Nord is a smartphone, not an incontinent Scandinavian

Are you sure that Kat Hall is still not working at El Reg?

Incredible artifact – or vital component after civilization ends? Rare Nazi Enigma M4 box sells for £350,000

Re: A fine piece of German engineering

strong lesson to never make use of security by obscurity

Perhaps a certain Twitter CEO might want to buy an Enigma encryption machine.

(I'm here until Четверг - try the borscht)

Forget about Wipro chairman saying no one would lose their job due to COVID-19: UK staff told they're facing redundancy

Aw, bless

"Premji also replied to shareholders' queries around justification of compensation to the CEO (highest in Wipro's history)"

Always a good reason for others to suffer.

Babe, I've changed! Twitter wants to try a relationship again with devs after first major API tweaks in years

Err

In doing so, the shouty social network is making yet another attempt to stabilize its development platform and earn the trust of individual, academic, and corporate coders whose software might just make the company more valuable.

Crossed lines perhaps?

Twitter says hack of key staff led to celebrity, politician, biz account hijack mega-spree

Just imagine ..

Both Xi Jinping and Trump's twitter accounts being hacked and being used to start a war.

On second thought, Trump doesn't need to have his account hacked to do that.

The Devil's in the details: Church of Satan forced to clarify that no unholy rituals taking place in SoCal forest

Re: Church of Satan?

I stand corrected by you and WikiPedia. I thought that LaVey initially worshipped Satan as a deity and only much later moved to atheist religion.

Church of Satan?

Is that LaVeyan Satanism then? If so then they did revere Satan as a figurehead, which makes their claim, "as an atheistic religion, we don’t believe there is anything to make a sacrifice to" about as serious as the Flat Earth Society's claim that they are indeed a global community.

€13bn wings its way back to Apple after Euro court rules Irish tax deal wasn't 'state aid'

Apple said the case was not about "how much tax we pay, but where we are required to pay it."

Oh great. So from now on is it ok for us to buy Apple equipment from somewhere else in the world where it might be much cheaper?

You've think you've heard it all about automation in technology? Get a load of this robot that plugs in cables

Re: It's been done

That's nothing. The Russians have developed a robotic civil servant. 'She' helps with issuing certificates to testify that people have a clean criminal record and no record of drug use - no mention of use of lethal force in the event of non-compliance or failure to salute the picture of Dobby on the wall.

Google employs people to invent colours – and they think their work improves your wellbeing

Any colour you like?

And we all know what colour matches chocolate .. the one that they feed you.

Icon: because it is the closest to a steaming pile of Google.