Posts by Grunchy

OK brainiacs, we've got an IT cold case for you: Fatal disk errors on an Amiga 4000 with 600MB external SCSI unless the clock app is... just so

Re: The root of the problem

...and I was just about to gripe about LS120 super disks, too...

Tesla downs tools in California, New York amid 'non-essential' biz clampdown

Re: I didn't think Electric Jesus believed in the virus

Musk is a denier of things being able to grow exponentially. David Suzuki had a famous quip about exponential growth: in a jar of bacteria that doubles in population each minute, it only notices a problem when the jar has finally filled to the half-way mark.

The Reg produces exhibit A1: A UK court IT system running Windows XP

My Sony UX533 still runs XP

It runs XP just fine, thanks. Microsoft and IT professionals the world over issued dire warnings of, what, impending doom, calamity, destruction. Look it's just for playing Solitaire and Minesweeper, ok? Maybe a bit of 3d pinball. That's about it. Get over it, I still like me old Sony UX533.

California tech industry gets its first big coronavirus hit: RSA Conference attendee infected, in serious condition

Its worse than you think

The virus has anywhere from 2-6% death rate, which is terrible, but about 12% get “severe” symptoms, possibly leading to the need of a medically-induced coma, as in the case mentioned. So it’s a lot more life-threatening than you might think.

Probably people need to be shown footage of patient’s suffering so they can become patient enough to wash (with soap) for the recommended minimum 20 seconds.

Who's got the WD-40? Owners of Motorola's rebooted Razr whinge about creaky hinge

I preferred the original StarTac, who cares about the Razr. They brought back the wrong one!

Artful prankster creates Google Maps traffic jams by walking a cartful of old phones around Berlin

So what’s the deal

Are you guys gonna extradite Assange, or what.

IBM, Microsoft, a medley of others sing support for Google against Oracle in Supremes' Java API copyright case

Re: Obviously, all the big cloud providers want to be free to copy anybody's API...

That works for me, I don't intend to pay anybody for software, ever.

Much bigger problems to solve

Here's a boggle that defies the collective might of everyone's IT intellectual powers. It has persisted for decades with not a single human able to solve it.

"If your download doesn't start within 30 seconds just click here to start it manually".

It's interesting you lot are still stymied by Y2K, 20 years on.

Tea tipplers are more likely to live longer, healthier lives than you triple venti pumpkin-syrup soy-milk latte-swilling fiends

I reject this story

I only came here to express my discontent. Flame away.

Why is a 22GB database containing 56 million US folks' personal details sitting on the open internet using a Chinese IP address? Seriously, why?

Re: There are reasons

What dya mean, like a VPN or something?

You lie, you never found nuthen

Where's the smoking bodies, that's what I want to know.

SpaceX flings another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit in firm's heaviest payload to date

Re: Think

If starlink consists of 24 launches of 60 sats, that adds up 1440 sats in total. Surely not nearly enough cell towers, for all of Earth? Particularly since a majority of them are whipping over ocean, Sahara/Gobi/Outback, polar barrens at any given moment?

I’d love to have a proper working sat smartphone though!

I’d love to converse with my N.Korean chums finally too!

Google and IBM square off in Schrodinger’s catfight over quantum supremacy

Re: Colour me interested...

I’m keenly interested in SpaceX’s starlink tech. Supposedly whizzing over Canada & northern USA any moment now.

I’m chuff’d to finally IRC with my North Korean mates ! We got a lot of catching up to do :)

The Nokia 3.2 is a phone your nan will love: One camera's more than enough, darling

I updated to iPhone SE

Look, you can get em practically free, plus you can snap on a FLIR One for next to nothing. It WORKS, man. I’m surfing here on it at this very moment in fact. And did I mention the two actual cameras?

I sincerely use freephoneline.ca and a PAP2T, no foolin! You dopes are paying 95£? For Finnish tech?!

Reusing software 'interfaces' is fine, Google tells Supreme Court, pleads: Think of the devs!

Re: C, not Pascal.

The first time I saw a java program, I thought: “huh, so it’s C then.”

I’m not alone in the world!

What’s a ‘brexit’

What is that, some kind of brekky biscuit? D’you have it with ketchup?

I could throttle you right about now: US Navy to ditch touchscreens after kit blamed for collision

Re: Based on my (Citroen) in car touch screen

My working theory is the helmsman had a sudden case of trots, ran to the head, heard the "turn aboot!" order, dashed out without properly drying his fingers (wiped all over his dungarees), and was aghast when the touch screen wouldn't register commands from soggy digits.

Also, he didn't use soap. Or water.

EXACTLY like Tesla

My Tesla has two throttle controls, the left wheels are under my command and the right wheels are under my wife's command. Equality, huh? Anyway, its a difficult system especially at a certain day of the month.

This is not the cloud you're looking for.... Oracle's JEDI mind tricks work as Trump forces $10bn IT project to drop out of warp

Re: a really stupid way to run a country?

I would blame Tesla if it tried to drive under a trailer and chopped my head off, yeah I'd definitely blame Tesla. No matter how bad a driver I might otherwise have been.

It's Friday lunchtime on International Beer Day. Bitter hop to it, boss'll be none the weiser

Beer Day, eh

Register has gone downhill so far it's almost on a par with Vanshardware.com!

Van Smith, anyone? Hello?

Ah well bottom up. Figuratively and literally.

Despite high-profile hires, Apple's TV plans are doomed

Best deal is OTA

I made an awesome antenna out of cardboard & tinfoil (had to trim sort of a zig-zag shape with a modeling knife). Picks up all the local channels. Fantastic!

I do have a HW150PVR which works "ok" (for $30), but only on one TV. I'm considering getting Homerun Extend to transcode OTA & put it on the home network, except it only has 2 tuners (per box). Hmm, hmm.

Apple, I want the $0-per-month solution. I know you will never deliver, nevertheless, that's what I want.

My unpopular career in writing computer reviews? It's a gift

I actually bought gloves like this

I got Kevlar knit refractory gloves, the working hypothesis being, if they are for handling red-hot forgings, they ought to have unusually good insulative properties (and also remarkably tough, and cut-proof). And if that is true, they might be warmer than the average glove. They should make remarkable winter gloves!

I paired them with a set of US military windproof gauntlet mitt covers I got from the surplus and now I've got me a kick butt pair of winter mitts !

Unfortunately, they are like 1 step down from boxing gloves.

PC rebooted every time user flushed the toilet

Voltmeter

Whoever thought you'd need a voltmeter to diagnose an electrical fault.

NOBODY THATS WHO.

Oh, wow, Canada: No more carrier-locked phones for Canucks

I dunno - I think I still boycott cellphones

It's like $100 a month for - what?

I have a free VOIP subscription with freephoneline.ca and that's adequate.

Sorry if it offends anyone, but I choose to put that money into investments instead.

Donald Trumped: Comey says Prez is a liar – and admits he's a leaker

Re: Impeachment?

Okay, wait a minute.

YOU are telling ME that, even though the President can have anybody pardoned for any crime at any time he wants,

* he is not able to commit any crime he wants?

* he cannot stop any investigation into any crime he wants?

What the F man?

This guy is Judge Dredd - He is the law!

The only thing I'm surprised is he doesn't just repeal the constitution and put the country under Trump law. Cancel all elections, repeal democracy, and set himself up as King Trump and Kiss My Ass.

What difference does it make

The only Americans who love Trump are assholes, everybody else already knows Trump is a piece a crap.

There's no direct evidence to win a conviction, furthermore Trump would have to be impeached by his own party, who are probably not keen to do so.

So, what does it prove? Trump is immune, and now emboldened to do even worse crimes.

Good work team!

F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen on IoT: If it uses electricity, it will go online

I'm not paying extra for that crap

I'll buy the cheaper, non-IoT equipment, thanks.

I'll do my level best to run "IoT" vendors out of business. Why?

It serves no worthwhile purpose to me.

Also, I'm a gonna save a buck too.

Software dev bombshell: Programmers who use spaces earn MORE than those who use tabs

Tabs and spaces are for BABBIES. You don't "need" any of that overhead. Oh right, this is the internet. Ok then, *I* do not need any of that overhead. *You* who need spaces & tabs also need gentle words of support from your MAMAs.

No matter which you use, the compiler summarily ignores all that extraneous trash.

Phew: ISS re-supply mission launches without destroying Wallops launch-pad

5 minutes late

Musk should get his lawers ready for breach of contract lawsuit.

I would expect Nasa has substantial damages due to the delay...

(imagine having to pay all of Nasa crew for 5 mins while Musk is wasting time in the bathroom, needlessly delaying the launch, of all the nerve)

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Microsoft's 'Ms Pac-Man beating AI' is more Automatic Idiot

Actually, I do want to see the computer beat Ms. Pac Man

I don't care about the machine learning, yeah it's a hack, whatever.

I just want to see the solution dammit !

WDC fires another shot at Toshiba in flash foundry spat, whispers: Pick me, Tosh!

Finally fixed my WD20EARS

Meanwhile I finally got around to fixing my old WD20EARS which was factory programmed to park the heads after 8 seconds. I had to figure out how to disable AHCI to boot into FreeDOS and set the idle to 300 seconds. The poor drive had been parking once a minute for 14,000 hrs! Its a wonder it didn't park itself to death.

WDC is the devil.

Soldiers bust massive click-farm that used 500k SIM cards, 100s of mobes to big up web tat

Re: "I've got 2 houses in that very village!"

I've got 9 computers, we should start a business venture...

(just need 1 other guy with 500 iphones and 1 another guy with 375,000 sim cards, I reckon)

Jailed fraudster admits running same cold-caller con from behind bars

Phishers

My work is taking phishing more seriously since some viruses got into the network storage & had to be excised. So management started sending scam phishing emails to everybody on staff - and there are some that just cannot figure out the difference between legitimate communication and a suspicious phishing attempt. They click every link sent their way, probably in like 2 seconds without a care in the world.

So the company is (I imagine) working its way toward barring certain individuals from being able to communicate using company email.

It seems like they may also have to consider barring the same individuals from talking on the phone, or even receiving visitors for that matter.

The sad thing is that social-engineering phishers could easily get to those individuals merely by taking them for lunch, at which point they'd probably have to just be let go.

This seems like a logical conclusion, except I think just about anyone is susceptible to being fooled at one time or another...

First-day-on-the-job dev: I accidentally nuked production database, was instantly fired

To Be Fair: at least in Canada, you can fire anybody you hire within their first 3 months with no notice or explanation and no legal problem. Similarly, the new hire has the right to quit on the spot, within the same time period, without giving any notice or reason, either.

(Because giving notice goes Both Ways).

Firing the ignorant clumsy new guy who wrecks the whole operation seems wrong, but is it?

No, it is not.

Re: Documentation issue.

Well to be fair, most of the time the documentation people don't know what they are talking about.

They rely on "SME" or "subject-matter-expert".

That's probably the guy who should be fired. Or one of them...

Or the guy who never proofread the docs, or the guy who never asked them to be corrected/updated, etc.

Everybody should be fired

The new guy, because he's so ignorant/dumb he doesn't know what he's doing (for the job he's been hired for).

The CTO for same reason.

The docs team, same reason.

The rest of the company? Yes, they are indeed all fired.

Trump field day!!

3D printing and drones are the tech del día at Spanish startup fiesta

Pretty good rendering

Not bad CGI

Wowee, it's Samsung's next me-too AI gizmo: The Apple HomePod

Ohmigosh I am such a marketing sucker

A couple years ago I finally responded to the marketing suggestion that had been implanted into my psyche and I bought a Bose Wave radio, first gen, $50 off Fleabay.

I AM SUCH A LOSER ARRRRGHHHHHHHHHH.

I mean, it has nice bass response, but the reception kinda sucks.

Uber fires robo car exec for insubordination

Re: Dropped

Sallee Yoo

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

Who fights with aircraft security?

A terrorist fights with aircraft security, presumably.

Think about what security personnel are doing: securing YOUR LIFE. You're going to fight those people and impede that process?

Rather than 'fight the system' like a dope, why not think of a technological solution.

For Instance: why does your mobile computer need a battery anyway, why not bring something like a Mac Mini that has no battery.

It's just 'Pro' now, guys: Microsoft gives Surface a subtle resurfacing

I want to telephone people

If it has a SIM slot then I want to make calls on it.

I've got some headphones with a microphone. Microsoft, make it happen.

I don't give a damn if I'm the only one like me in the whole entire world, that's what I want.

Bye bye MP3: You sucked the life out of music. But vinyl is just as warped

Foobar 2000

I would just about play MP3s with VLC, I care so little.

But anyway I got Foobar 2000, its ok but doesn't play MODs.

What the hell, I can use VLC for MODs.

(I've got stacks & stacks of albums ripped into MP3s, I actually enjoy the snaps, crackles, and pops!)

Julian Assange wins at hide-and-seek game against Sweden

Whats all this BS about "innocent until proven guilty" that's only for the courts, who must be impartial if not "blind" to all matters.

People, sheeple -- we are allowed to think for ourselves. NOBODY is required to believe in "innocent until proven guilty", as a matter of fact, I personally believe in "Guilty the moment you do the crime".

With respect to A-hole Assange, sadly I know nothing about his case so I dunno. I am not such a fool to assume he's innocent though - he's definitely guilty of something.

Somehow or other, he deserves the scrutiny he's under.

EC fines Facebook €110m for 'misleading' data on WhatsApp deal

Where's the beef?

What makes any of this worth anything?

I guess it's because Facebook can exploit that data to compel a certain portion of the population to buy something or other, for which Facebook demands a commission.

(Sorry, I remember there was some question from the 'social network' movie which was: what exactly is the value of Facebook, what is it that makes it a business - and I guess ultimately this is what it is? I'm actually not sure.)

US Coast Guard: We're rather chuffed with our new Boeing spy drone

Time to get SERCO involved

Am I right??

SERCO will fix everything up good.

Fancy a relaxed boozy holiday? Keep well away from Great Britain

Ha ha that's funny

Especially since the government & advertisers know for a fact that people pretty much cannot think for themselves.

This is the whole advertising game, you don't waste time & effort trying to convince people to buy smokes/drinks, you merely show images of people enjoying whatever poison you peddle (literally: poison) and let "freely thinking" people do the work for you.

Next thing you know, the addicts are doing the recruiting. For free!

Two nasty things about big tobacco, from top-of-head:

1. You can sue them for damages, and you can win billion$ or hundreds of million$ in damages, but they will never pay you. They will appeal and appeal and appeal until the day you die.

2. They advertise the hell out of the third world. They advertise the hell out of third world children. They go wherever the regulations are not - they have to, in order to survive.

Just because it's legalized, doesn't mean it isn't pure evil in its heart, and that's not bombast, that's a sober true fact (ha ha, "sober").

Elbow's up, lads! That's an order :)

Facebook is abusive. It's time to divorce it

Re: Just say NO to Social Media sites/apps

Rich 11: there's a tragedy about democratic voting wherein one is allowed to cast votes only in support of one candidate; even though most often, none of the candidates are all that acceptable.

My proposal is to permit the choice of casting a negative vote. The premise is that if enough people are PO'd enough about a candidate that they achieve a net-negative vote (more votes cast against them than for them), then they are declared un-electable.

Here's the best part: let's say many people hate all of the offered candidates, let's say it was Hillary vs Donald. Well in this scenario, it is highly likely that BOTH candidates would generate net-negative results, and so both would be declared un-electable.

In other words -------

neither candidate would win, and the election would have to be a do-over, with new candidates.

And there's the possibility of a distant, third runner who somehow squeaks in with +5 votes, becomes declared King of the Kountry.

(I've had people tell me this idea is ridiculous, but I promise you, there is precedent: sometimes if you answer a customer satisfaction survey they allow you to craft your response on a scale from "highly satisfied" to "highly dissatisfied". Somehow this isn't too complex to judge your satisfaction with a burger stand; yet I'm told it's far too complex for selecting an elected official. Hmm, I'm not convinced.)

It's a question worth asking: Why is the FCC boss being such a jerk?

Re: Personally I have no strong opinions on it?

I agree.

I always thought Net Neutrality was an issue of contention between the 99% of users VS the 1% of internet service providers.

You would think (democratically) that the needs of the many would automatically outweigh the wants of the few (especially since the ISPs do not actually "own" the internet, it's certainly not their turf that the 99% majority are accessing).

I suppose so long as the marketplace is fractured & people have options, they will have to keep that in mind if their ISP isn't giving satisfactory service - and as long as all ISPs don't all start working together as an internet access bloc.

Need the toilet? Wanna watch a video ad about erectile dysfunction?

I'm the one that brings a paper towel

We had this innovation known as "baby wipe" which I have found is a good device to use post-number 2. This is my personal opinion, merely sharing for the benefit of others.

Anyways, they don't carry baby wipes at work, because they don't let anybody bring babies into work.

So what I have found is if I were to take a dry paper towel, and moisten it in the sink, why it has become practically the same thing!

Unfortunately that means that I'm that guy who tends to flush those. Because, come on, how do you chuck your TP (PT) into the garbage can.

Now I've never known the plumbing to suffer the subsequent 'backup failure'. The one rule I've seen about flushing matter is that you should ensure whatever you flush is capable of pretty much dissolving into water; which tends to not include such sturdy toweling (which you need to really get a pristine wipe; I tend to not only use both sides of the PT wipe, but also get a couple folds to open up new surfaces, as well).

I say this in full awareness of the fat-bergs they suffer down in the sewers. But in my defence, I'm not the guy rinsing grease, or non-soluble coffee grounds, down the drain.

I have an inkling that even sturdy paper toweling must dissolve, eventually. Am I wrong?

Switch on your smartphone camera and look how fertile I am

Re: Too big to flush...

Omg, you folks are not aware of the new green "Paris Agreement" chemical bio-cremation method?

This one is practically built for the basement. All you need is a bit of alkaline hydrolysis, a flushing toilet, & 4 hours.

The benefit is saving all that natural gas from the combustors and being converted into CO2 or whatever.

This is a technology that evolved from the vet clinic to relieve us of our unwanted pet burden.