Posts by stringyfloppy

Troll it your way: Burger King ad tries to hijack Google Home gadgets

I wanted to write and record a hit single with the words "Hey Tom Tom" in it, so that when it played in cars with Tom Tom GPS devices in would trigger their Tom Tom's to talk. There's a song I sometimes sing to my son at bedtime that triggers Siri on my iPhone.

Hundreds of millions 'wasted' on UK court digitisation scheme

On with the Pixie Hats!

As long as Magist-Sit 3000 is a success, I hardly think you can consider this money wasted.

America halts fast processing of H-1B skilled worker visas

Define "Technology Company"

I'm sure the Trump administration has totally forgotten that "technology companies" develop products, and that those products are often beneficial to people. I work for a biomedical company which relies on a lot of technology and technology workers, many on H-1B visas. Making problems for those workers does not help the research and production stay on target. But I'm sure making international cooperation, communication, interaction, etc. easier is at the bottom of Trump's list of priorities.

Security bods find Android phoning home. Home being China

Which Is It?

The articles states:

"Adups has not published a list of the phones its software is included in, although it is known to provide its software to the two large Chinese phone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE."

Then a Huawei spokesperson states:

"The company mentioned in this report is not on our list of approved suppliers, and we have never conducted any form of business with them."

Which is it? Register, what do you mean when you say "it is known to provide its software to the two large Chinese phone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE?" What's the source for that?

Two plead guilty to stealing personal information of millions

McArthur is still on LinkedIn.

Clucking hell! Farcical free-range egg standard pecked apart by app

The article doesn't mention where the app gets its data - where is that publically available?

Also, don't the egg "companies" use eggs produced by many different chicken farms? So how do they arrive at a rating for an egg company? Some kind of composite of the ratings for each chicken farm?

FCC clicks off the safety, fires at America's great cable TV box rip-off

Great news!

I hope this goes into effect, and soon. It's ridiculous how aggressively the cable companies pursue people who don't return their 6-year-old, outmoded, desperately-in-need-of-retirement set-top boxes. As if anyone has time to bring that crap to some remote, local cable office at the same time that they're planning a move. I've been pursued, and I think everyone who lived in a home previously has been pursued for it, because I've seen their mail and received phone calls for them.

How Microsoft will cram Windows 10 even harder down your PC's throat early next year

Re: absolute fucking stupidity

I think he meant they're using the same method used to produce the geese used for Foie Gras. Made perfect sense to me.

US Treasury: How did ISIS get your trucks? Toyota: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ISIS hasn't yet decided which Toyota slogan they're taking to heart. Their choices are:

"You asked for it! You got it!"

"Oh, what a feeling!"

"Who could ask for anything more?"

"I love what you do for me, Toyota!" (current front-runner)

"Everyday"

"Get the feeling!"

"Moving Forward"

"Let's Go Places"

White House 'deeply disappointed' by Europe outlawing Silicon Valley

Had enough of American games, eh?

I have no problem with the elimination of the Safe Harbor thingy, as long as we (the USA) cease all videogame commerce with the UK. Let's see you survive without American games and gaming systems.

Fiorina: I rushed out HP servers to power NSA snooping. Mwahahaha!

"Then I laid-off the people who built them..."

She's not only Anti-Women's Healthcare, she's Anti Privacy.

NEW ERA for HUMANITY? NASA says something 'major' FOUND ON MARS

In case it's not mentioned above (SPOILER ALERT):

It seems that what's going to be announced is the presence of water (sometimes) on the Martian surface.

If you got Netflix for Miss Marple, you're out of luck (and a bit odd)

Then of course with Netflix, every few months it just stops working at all. Once my family informs me (sometimes after a few days - I don't really use it much myself) - I have to remove any devices that are linked or whatever, and redo it over again. I don't know why this happens, but I'm sure Netflix knows - it doesn't even seem to be accidental, it's like they purge all devices occasionally on purpose.

While I like the idea of Netflix, their selections is EXTREMELY limited. Have they ever heard of black & white movies? Classics? They don't exist on Netflix.

Krebs: I know who hacked Ashley Madison

How did Impact Team (do we really have to call them that?) contact Krebs? This makes it sound like Krebs knows who is associated with Impact Team and has contact with them.

More deaths linked to Ashley Madison hack as scammers move in

Re: I have to admit, I'm impressed

You know the monitor was "reflecting" on her face when she read the message, and every keystroke elicited a beep.

Get whimsical and win a Western Digital Black 6TB hard drive

The Dusk of Man

Mumsnet founder 'swatted by misogynist griefers'

In a related story, hackers called a tobacconist and asked if he had Prince Albert in a can...

You CAN'T jail online pirates for 10 years, legal eagles tell UK govt

They seem dead-set on being able to treat someone who downloads music using Google as an MP3 search engine the same way as they treat someone who manufactures illegal CDs and sells them on the street for cash. These are two incredibly different things. They need to stop using the word Piracy. It's so very vague - do they mean rum-drinking?

Bloke cuffed for blowing low-flying camera drone to bits with shotgun

Are people expected to know what a drone is, and be able to differentiate it from other things? Are we supposed to be able to tell when it's close enough to the ground above our houses that it might hurt someone (people have been killed by "toy" radio controlled helicopters - it's not that unusual) and we should notify the police?

These things are basically new, and apparently there are a lot of morons controlling them. I don't own a gun, but I'd take the garden hose to one of these things in a heartbeat of it was over my property. If the jackasses flying it call the police, I'll tell them I had zero idea what it was and thought I was under attack. "A 'drone?' You mean like an alien drone? Yeah, I thought it was something dangerous like that, a drone. I hope there isn't a queen around anywhere..."

If authorities are going to let people fly these things around like fools, they also have to let us have absolutely no idea what the things are, and do whatever we can think of to knock them out of the sky, just as if it was a Stephen King book. I'm not going to restrain myself just because some dork paid $1,800 for the menacing aircraft he ordered online.

Amazon enrages authors as it switches to 'pay-per-page' model

Suppose someone self-publishes a book, 1000 people buy the Kindle version but no one reads it. Then five years later the writer becomes well known, and everyone who bought those 1000 copies suddenly reads all of it. Would Amazon pay the writer at that point? Or is there some cut off point by which customers must read pages in order for the writer to get paid?

Reddit: Gonna SCRUB these TROLLS right outa my hair

Who the hell cares? It's a privately owned site that the owners let people use for free. They can control it however they want. This (and the more recent shuttering of certain sub-Reddits) is only "news" because Reddit wants to try to rein this in without losing users. Since they don't charge users, the only reason they don't want to lose users is that they exist to sell advertising, or are somehow hoping to sell Reddit.

The Martian: Matt Damon sciences the sh*t out of the red planet

"aspiring novelists will wonder why they didn't think of the “astronaut left behind on Mars figures out how to survive” premise first."

Probably because Paramount Pictures released "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" in 1964, in which an astronaut stranded on Mars has to figure out how to survive.

The thing about Apple's 'one MORE thing'? It's a streaming music thing

I've been reading some bogus claims that Apple Music will allow users to listen to "almost every song ever." This is complete bull, as I own loads of music that no streaming service has available. First of all, there's a lot of music that has never been released digitally, and a lot that's long out of print. Then there are small, indie releases which are pretty obscure. Apple's collection and mine don't actually overlap all that much.

Has marketing grabbed the IT reins at your company?

What does "if they have development nous" mean? Maybe a typo?

Also, what is the Chatham House Rule?

Doom, Mario, Pac-Man level up to video gaming's Hall of Fame

This is nonsense.

That Star Trek game played on a Teletype?

Space War (first arcade video game)?

Woman dumps ultra-rare $200,000 Apple 1 computer in the trash

I trashed a TRS-80 Model II decades ago. I felt bad doing it too. Also an Amiga 800XL.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bog-standard boxty

Just so you know, no American is going to drain grated potatoes in a stocking unless it's a brand new stocking.

China spending $182 BEEELLION on net construction by end of 2017

Because we're unwilling to make things like Soy Sauce made from Human hair, or pet food that's intentionally poisonous to pets..

Milking cow shot dead by police 'while trying to escape'

On a sidenote, members of the band Pink Floyd were later spotted in the area, looking for something and shouting "Lulubelle! Lulubelle!"

Starbucks denies mobile app hack, blames careless customers

"Like all major retailers, the company has safeguards in place to constantly monitor for fraudulent activity and works closely with financial institutions."

All major retailers, like SONY for example.

Major London rail station reveals system passwords during TV documentary

Henry the Green Engine was sent to run over that station controller until he's dead.

Facebook serves up shaved, pierced, tattooed 'butterfly' as CAPTCHA

I'm certain Facebook deliberately delivered that specific photo to the user.

Fsck those new emojis! Install iOS 8.3, OS X 10.10.3 NOW to squash all these security bugs

I used an emoji on my iPhone once. That was enough. They should work on getting the spelling correction to work better, not on those stupid pictuires!

Dot-com intimidation forces Indiana to undo hated anti-gay law

Re: Interesting conclusions

I agree. It was intended to allow anyone (in Indiana) to legally discriminate against anyone for any reason. So it covers all bases.

The amendments to the law really don't fix it enough, because since you can instantly become a legally ordained minister online, you can then discriminate against people for ANYTHING other than what the amendments specify. So you can discriminate based on people's taste in clothing, the size of their hair, or the fact that they're not from Indiana. The law should have to specify who you CAN refuse to do business with, not who you CAN'T refuse to do business with. F Indiana and Arkansas - we can live without those states.

WIN a RockBLOCK Mk2 Iridium sat comms unit

Secret Multinational Operation Keyed to Eradicate Hillary's Email Memory Powers (SMOKEHEMP)

Anthem, America's second biggest health insurer, HACKED: Millions hit by breach

We join you in wondering why the f*ck we weren't more vigilant."

Google Translate MEAT GRINDER turns gay into 'faggot', 'poof', 'queen'

Re: Fact Hunt!

"In Spain, we revere the famous English writer and bulldyke, Virginia Woolf."

It's hacker jihad: Islamist skiddies square up to Anonymous

Surely by "claiming responsibility" El Reg meant "accepting blame," right? Or "admitting guilt?" Because defacing "proper" religious sites has nothing to do with responsibility.

Spotify flips bird at Taylor Swift, adds MILLIONS more users

Does Spotify pay the artist or their agent directly?

I'd probably join if the selection of music wasn't so small. There's tons of stuff I have on CD that they don't offer.

Icelandic brewers knock up whale 'nad beer

Does Stedji go into detail on their website as to how they kill the whales? I'd like to know how they kill them, or have them killed so they can cook their testes.

Windows 7 MARKED for DEATH by Microsoft as of NOW

Is there any acceptable OS release since Windows 7? I don't think so...

Elite: Dangerous 'billionaire' gamers are being 'antisocial', moan players

Who the hell cares? It's a video game.

Here's Johnny! Top Ten fantasy Blu-ray boxsets and special editions

Does the Spielberg set contain the real CE3K, or just the one Spielberg messed with?

Ghosts of Christmas Past: The long-ago geek gifts that made us what we are

My older brother and I collectively had most of those, and they did indeed help make us what we are. Fiddling with one of those electronics kits, a shortwave radio, or microscope was a great way to spend time.

Dotcom 'saved' Xmas for Xbox – but no one can save Sony's titsup PlayStation Network

<<Lizard Squad – which claimed responsibility for the attacks...>>

Lizard Squad didn't "claim responsibility." They "admitted guilt."

Gmail falls over after hitting 'Great Firewall of China' – report

"Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients. Many people outside China might be forced to switch away from Gmail."

They should just turn away from China and do business elsewhere then.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bryndzové halušky

But, ummm...

...what do we do with the cheese? You've left us hanging!

30,000 people buy a box of BOVINE EXCREMENT

Did they say it was a filled box they were selling, or was it advertised as an empty box? If it was advertised as being empty, and I'd bought one, I'd accuse them of fraud.