* Posts by EuKiwi

48 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Dec 2014

Tesla nearing shareholder vote to grant Musk $46B

EuKiwi

But they won't.

There's a reason why so many Musk fanatics are Trump supporters... very cult-like in their devotion.

Doom Eternal: Reboot sequel is cluttered but we're only here for the rippin' and the tearin'

EuKiwi

Loved Doom 2016 immensely...

... but a bit cautious about Doom Eternal. Mostly because it looks like they've just added in fluff for the sake of it. Personally, Doom 2016 but with minor tweaks and the new setting/story would have sufficed for me. But - I'll reserve final judgement until I have played it. Waiting for sales, as I always do. :)

On the reminiscing front, I was an Amiga boy, and I can very clearly remember looking on with envy at friends playing Wolfenstein and, later, Doom - which absolutely blew my mind. It was Doom actually that pulled me away from buying an Amiga 1200 into the world of PCs. I have massively nostalgic memories of late nights playing that game, and how atmospheric it was. I'm not sure if it would feel like that today of course, but, still - nice memory.

Apple strips clips of WWDC devs booing that $999 monitor stand from the web using copyright claims. Fear not, you can listen again here...

EuKiwi

Wait... what... huh?

So you can't even use your existing VESA mount monitor arm on it without buying a 200 fscking dollar adapter??? I honestly had assumed at least if you didn't want the stand, you could just what you already have.

But of course, silly me - it's Apple.

God damn, you can tell Apple's iPhone and iPad golden era is over and sales are flatlining - first the double-the-cost-of-the-components base spec Mac Pro, and now this...

Sniff the love: Subaru's SUVs overwhelmed by scent of hair shampoo, recalls 2.2 million cars

EuKiwi

Re: Holy cow, it's everywhere

Aussie brand shampoos etc. are some of the most obnoxiously over-scented products on the market IMO.

Azure Kinect: All-seeing 3D camera shenanigans for everyone ... except consumers

EuKiwi

I think they mean identifying movement patterns which would indicate the patient is not stable on their feet, a bit woozy etc... not that they're already on the way down :)

EuKiwi

The fact is that whilst it may have flopped with the Xbox One, the Kinect really is an impressive bit of tech... hope it finds its ideal application.

Crash, bang, wallop: What a power-down. But what hit the kill switch?

EuKiwi

Um... even if his HEAD hit it, not a shoulder or something, pretty much anyone above 5' 5" would be able to reach something 7 feet up, no?

Ouch, Apple! Plenty of iPhones stuck in tech channel. How many? That's a 'wild card'

EuKiwi

Re: Oh, to have such 'problems'...

The problem isn't the income, it's the fact that Apple's shareholders are incredibly, incredibly spoiled and used to continuous record-breaking growth and profit etc... so if there is a hiccup like now, they all run around with their hands in the air and panic, and unjustifiably large amounts of value are wiped off the value of their stock in the market.

EuKiwi

Re: It's all my fault

I wonder if he was watching the Netflix Marvel shows as well...

EuKiwi

Re: What a surprise...

Totally agree with the Xiaomi A2 Lite - bought one for my Dad and it's utterly brilliant for the price - cost me 160 Euro.

EuKiwi

What a surprise...

... who would have thought that sales might suffer if you're selling phones for the price of a good-spec laptop?

Here in Germany the XS Max top capacity model is 1650 Euro... I mean, come on, people complained about the Samsung Note 9 which can be had for 900 at the same capacity. And, for the record, the Note 9 IS overpriced, so what do we call the price of the XS Max?

The butterfly defect: MacBook keys wrecked by single grain of sand

EuKiwi

Bonus points not achieved for using 'Das' rather than 'Der' based on the fact that, ending in '-er' and an inanimate, 'Register' is likely to be considered masculine... :)

My PC makes ‘negative energy waves’, said user, then demanded fix

EuKiwi

Re: A solution

1996 called, they want their website design back.

Home fibre in the UK sucks so much it doesn't even rank in Euro study

EuKiwi

Surprised Germany isn't higher...

I live in a very small town in rural Bavaria... and I have 500Mbps down, 50mbps up...

Having said that, it's up to the local councils whether or not to invest the money into upgrading etc. They do get a very large chunk paid for by the state, but still it's not an insignificant chunk of cash they have to find.

Apple, quit milking tech-addicted fruit of our loins – shareholders

EuKiwi

Re: Same old, same old

Funny.

You moan about picking on Apple, then say 'back on topic', and then moan again that people are only picking on Apple, not Android.

The fact is, this article is about a letter written by shareholders to Apple - they are unlikely in the same letter to touch on the subject of Android, nor does the article exclude efforts to have the same controls and improvements added to Android. You're whining in the opposite direction. This is these days fashionably called 'Trumpism' - 'waaah, but what about what person X did??'.

An article focusing on one thing does not automatically mean that another is reduced in importance or relevance.

Knock, knock? Oh, no one there? No problem, Amazon will let itself in via your IoT smart lock

EuKiwi

Two words...

Fuck. That.

Let's go live now to Magic Leap and... Ah, still making millions from made-up tech

EuKiwi

Re: Very Useful

Totally agree, had a blast around Dresden in Germany on one and it was a real giggle... wouldn't want to own one, but just to use for a day, gets a thumbs-up from me.

MH370 researchers refine their prediction of the place nobody looked

EuKiwi

Re: Let's get real.

@ J J Carter

Seems like, given the downvotes, you needed a 'joke alert' symbol...

EuKiwi

Re: What can be learned of the crash at this late stage?

@ I ain't Spartacus

You're right of course... 2 hours may not cover it, but that's just the CVR anyway I believe...

Most modern airliners record way more than 2 hours of FDR but some limit CVR - not for technical reasons, but artificially. It was introduced to overcome objections from some pilot's representatives/unions that stakeholders other than investigators may (mis)use the data, such as airline management.

Some recent events though have forced a reconsideration of this, naturally.

EuKiwi

Re: What can be learned of the crash at this late stage?

30 minutes of recording was the original requirement set, however modern CVR/FDR units record much more than this, hours rather than minutes (I think 2 hours or so is the average).

Pwned UK SME fined £60K for leaving itself vulnerable to hack attack

EuKiwi

Re: OK

You're missing the point - in this case they failed to test/check penetration with regard to known vulnerabilities. Otherwise how could it have been determined that they hadn't defended against them?

US laptops-on-planes ban may extend to flights from ALL nations

EuKiwi

Re: Absolutely brilliant for local economies!

They are not suggesting that tablets be banned, only laptops, as far as I can tell.

EuKiwi

Re: Nice try, but...

Some people want to fly Air NZ all the way, that's what he's 'on about'. Flying code share means you're not then actually flying Air NZ are you?

EuKiwi

Re: Nice try, but...

Oh God I couldn't agree more - what I wouldn't give for an Air NZ route which avoided the US.

EuKiwi

Potential ticking time bomb?

Now, I'll freely admit I'm not an expert on this, but I would be rather nervous about the thought of having all those Li-Ion batteries in the hold. Granted, I'm sure there are always some there even now, but the more you have down there, surely the higher the risk of dodgy/compromised battery burning up?

We've all seen videos of devices flaring up in the cabin where things can at least to a degree be controlled, and deprived of other non-oxygen fuel, but in the hold - perhaps the built in fire suppression systems could cope. Again, I'm not an expert and it's just throwing the idea out there.

Also, I'm not sure about whether or not the device is in use or not in the cabin was the key factor, but I'm also guessing a lot of laptops in the hold would be in sleep mode, not fully switched off...

Never mind custody decisions, let's AI up our police cars

EuKiwi

Re: Lowering crime rates

The fact is however, that the higher the prosecution/success rate (or failure rate depending on one's perspective), the greater the deterrent - so it DOES actually serve to lower crime rates also.

Is Britain really worse at 4G than Peru?

EuKiwi

Quite a common theme...

I travel a lot and I've noticed something similar in Eastern Europe and Asia. In a lot of areas there the fixed-line infrastructure simply isn't up to high speed internet, and so as a result they've invested much more heavily in mobile internet instead as this is a hell of a lot cheaper and easier than upgrading the fixed infrastructure.

It's much more common in a lot of those areas for people to have a home 4G router for example, instead of (V)DSL/Fibre.

So in that sense, it's understandable.

HPE's started firing people at Simplivity, say former employees

EuKiwi

Re: HP + Cisco + Dell != Software

Dear God, you really have no idea what you are talking about, do you?

Passengers ride free on SF Muni subway after ransomware infects network, demands $73k

EuKiwi

Re: Sign of the times

> And the myth about fbw aircraft being "uncontrollable" is sensationalist rubbish btw, don't pay attention to that.

Hrm... well sort of. 'Uncontrollable' is a bit dramatic of course, but then you yourself admitted to using dramatic licence to please the crowd, so... stones, glass houses etc. :)

Whilst the RAT for example would provide basic control, it is VERY basic - not uncontrollable, but definitely not ideal, and certainly not like suddenly being in a light aircraft as you stated.

A British phone you're not embarrassed to carry? You heard that right

EuKiwi

Re: Diasappointing

Bugger. Missed the joke alert.

EuKiwi

Re: Diasappointing

Well, then that would be me... I have the S7 Edge dual-sim. I have to have two sims for work and the dual-sim model tops out at 32GB, so I ended up having to do some 'surgery' on the second sim to stick it to the back of the micro-sd to get all three.

5% of drivers want Nigel Farage to be their in-car robo butler

EuKiwi

Good for you!

Getting educated on the proper terms for things :D

I had the Kiwi one set up a while ago on mine just to have a taste of home, and whilst the phrases such as 'Chuck a U-y here bro, choice' and 'Mate, turn around let's go get us a mean steak and cheese pie' were hilarious in the beginning, it did get tiresome after a few thousand iterations.

Plane food sees pilot grounded by explosive undercarriage

EuKiwi

Re: Is there anyone on board that can fly a plane?

There has never been a single incident of a non-pilot being talked down whilst flying a commercial jet. Light planes, yes, but that's not what we're talking about here.

HP creates laptop for SITH LORDS

EuKiwi

Bah. That's not evil.

If they want to be truly evil, they should make a Jar-Jar Binks version.

eBay flogs off eBay chunk for $925m as 'uncoupling' gets closer

EuKiwi

What a bargain!

Considering eBay, as far as I recall, purchased Paypal for $1.5 billion or something...

Pray for AMD

EuKiwi

Just as an example...

For my parents I was just yesterday helping them to find a decent, large (desktop replacement) laptop which had a good FHD IPS screen, reasonable build quality and decent enough processor.

We're not talking high-end here, more like mid-range, but there was not a single AMD-powered example to be found which ticked even 50% of the boxes. I might have even been swayed by a good-quality TN screen at a push. Every AMD option however had a crappy screen and was a plastic fantastic.

I'd love to be able to support AMD - but I also don't want to buy tat.

Ex-Apple bods suing Apple for bag searches get class-action upgrade

EuKiwi

Experienced this myself...

Used to work at Apple Ireland - leaving work there was often a long delay due to the fact anyone who had a bag with them had to show a security guard there was nothing in it - quite annoying and insulting. And of course, yes, this was in our own time....

Ireland loses entire airport amid new postcode chaos

EuKiwi

Re: Welcome to 20th err 21st Century Ireland

Dublin sort of does, but even then it's just dividing the city up into regions, nothing very precise.

Having no postcode system is not that unusual in small countries with low populations - New Zealand is the same, Auckland has a few postcode regions but generally in NZ they're just not really used.

EuKiwi

Re: Limiting searches

This is true - however the vast amount of normal users will not be aware of how to get around it, and that's the main point.

The comparatively small number of users who DO know how to get around it won't bother them at all, and those who legitimately require a higher number of searches, such as businesses, will hardly notice the fee they charge as part of their normal cost of doing business.

A gold MacBook with just ONE USB port? Apple, you're DRUNK

EuKiwi

I could understand this, if...

... it at least came with a couple of adapters INCLUDED.

The cost for a bog standard USB 2/3 adapter or an HDMI/VGA adapter is just eye-watering considering what they are.

If it came with a couple of adapters for that price, I'd say 'OK, fair enough'.

However, this is Apple we're talking about here...

$10,000 Ethernet cable promises BONKERS MP3 audio experience

EuKiwi

I once had a cable...

... with which I was experiencing terrible throughput - approx 100Mbit instead of what I usually achieved, which was circa 750Mbit on average.

Upon investigation, I discovered that it had been heavily, but lovingly, gnawed upon by Snowy, our rabbit. The damage was so extreme that some of the pairs had wires that were completely severed - yet it still worked even if slowly.

And even with THIS cable, I certainly didn't notice any reduction in sound fidelity...

A fool and his money, etc. etc.

VMware finds new post-paranoia RAM-saving tricks

EuKiwi

Re: No win..

VMware do not see it that way.

As the article states, the default philosophy is 'secure by default' which they always stick by wherever possible. It is possible of course to turn it back on if you wish, but by default, the most secure option is chosen instead.

Goes like the blazes: Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 late 2014 edition

EuKiwi

Re: Wake me up...

I agree with you for web browsing and magazine/book reading and the like but I use my tablet very frequently for viewing movies, and there a 16:9 makes MUCH more sense as you will get less of the black-bordery badness happening. Given Amazon are very much touting this as a movie/video content consumption toy, I think the 16:9 makes more sense to be honest.

But it's swings and roundabouts, and YMMV. :)

Amazon DROPS next day delivery amid Cyber Monday MADNESS

EuKiwi

I have never, ever had anything but the most exemplary service from Prime.

Friends of mine when I was living in Ireland worked for Amazon, and they told me they had massive powers to keep Prime customers happy, whether it be waiving monthly fees or applying credit.

I've had to send back a few items in my time, and on every single occasion it was a joy to deal with Amazon.

I'll happily spend a few euros more to buy from them knowing that it'll be no worries if I have to send something back.

EuKiwi

Re: Ordered Friday Arrived Today

The fuss is based around the fact that the world is full of far too many people who have far too much fucking free time on their hands.

EuKiwi

Re: Analogy

What if you bought a 1st class rail ticket, and then a massive tree fell across the tracks? Would you then be of the opinion that the rail company should have been in a position to oppose nature?

Don't be a twat.

EuKiwi

Hrm.. well, I call bullshit.

I'm not in the UK, but being a Kiwi there are several items I tend to order every year from the UK for 'cultural reasons'.

I ordered a pile of stuff this year, and it was all in one order. I DO have a Prime account in Germany, but obviously not in the UK.

All 8 items were shipped yesterday. One standard, not express, shipping charge of about 7 euro.

Estimated delivery time - oh, I don't know. Maybe this week, possibly next. Before Xmas anyway. Estimated says this Thursday.

So to those of you wailing and gnashing your teeth - seriously, get a hobby or at least a more vulnerable target for your vehemence because you're boring the shit out of me.

BORGED! Expat moves from New Zealand to Norway to be acquired by Cisco

EuKiwi

Seems I'm not the only one...

... who finds things a bit cliquey - I'm also an expat Kiwi but in Germany, not Norway, and compared to how things are in NZ, here it's very much more restrained/closed off. Hard to get accepted in a group of friends etc. Once it happens, you're golden though and they do tend to be much more likely to help you out with things, watch your back etc. rather than just 'people to go get wasted with'.