Posts by Zarno

If Daddy doesn't want me to touch the buttons, why did they make them so colourful?

Re: Press the button Max ...

Reminds me of this comic...

http://crfh.net/d/20090131.html

Bite me? It's 'byte', and that acronym is Binary Interface Transfer Code Handler

I usually use NUKEME, TESTNUKE, NUKEAFTER or something else for my testing stuff and variable name prefixe/suffix.

Short search of the project for NUKE and I know what I forgot...

The Rise of The (Coffee) Machines: I need assistance. I think I'm running Windows. Send help

Re: What a curious picture

The hot water that spews forth from any automagic coffee apparatus when that function is requested, invariably tastes like the howling vestiges of a vulcanization factory. Not a podule in sight, and yet it has that colour and scent of eau de haricots.

I'd rather microwave my tea water in those cases, gets all those little molecular dipoles dancing to the radio waves instead of last weeks (months, years, epochs) bean residue.

Mine's the one with a bag of Earl Grey in the pocket.

It is unclear why something designed to pump fuel into a car needs an ad-spewing computer strapped to it, but here we are

Re: Details!

I did not know that Wendys made a breakfast baconator...

That'll fit right nice with my baconator quad patty with a sour cream and chive baked tater. Small drink, natch.

Square peg of modem won't fit into round hole of PC? I saw to it, bloke tells horrified mate

Re: VGA Plug Screws

I thought I was the only one that had to do that on a mybook.

Was it the firewire + esata + usb version?

I used a firewire card with it for years on Linux, since USB overhead was noticeable back then.

Went to e-sata when I upgraded to a different motherboard that supported it, and Windows took over my life again. The windows switch was work related, not many IDE's/programming environments/pro level CAD/CAM systems run in *nix anymore.

Now the drive sits on the bookshelf, with who knows what on it. I really should dust it off and see if there's anything worth keeping, and plug it into the openwrt router for NAS duty...

Re: Saws

My IT bag has a small hand size claw hammer in it.

It's one of the most required but seldom used tools. The anecdotal "threaten with a hammer" story actually does work, I've encountered it a few times.

Also good for the usual un-bend of dented computer stuff.

Icon because aliens, croquet, planets, black holes, and spooky action with a hammer.

Prank warning: You do know your smart speaker's paired with Spotify over the internet, don't you?

Re: The only bug I see...

At the risk of getting more, can someone give feedback on why they downvoted?

Genuinely would like to know why they're there.

The only bug I see...

The only bug I see is not being able to un-link other users from the smart speaker.

And I think that may be partly to blame on the OEM, and partly on Spotify.

The assumption was probably that if someone has LAN/WiFi access, they want it to just work.

I have a home media receiver (Onkyo TX-NR636) with the Spotify Connect stuff built in, and early on noticed that I could have my phone on cellular data and still see it.

There's a setting in the Spotify app settings menu (Android, not certain on ios), under Devices for "Show local devices only", so the ability is intentional.

Any instance of the player that your account is logged into will also show as a device to be controlled remotely.

And I find no issues there, it works perfectly fine for my use case of playing music on the phone in my pocket and controlling it from the desktop Spotify player on the work laptop (and other way round).

Phone stays on cellular, work laptop stays on work network, and IT department is happy that they're segregated. It also allows for controlling the home system when I'm on the work VPN through the home DMZ (virtual access point with network segregation).

I have also noticed previously connected devices will drop off the list periodically, but the timeframe is erratic.

Spotify could rectify the issue with the smart speakers by having a "claim your device" dashboard showing any authorized connections and revoke options, or the OEM's integrating the functionality could have a "Hold power button for three seconds, then follow voice menu to delete authorized users" or some such. Likely both parties would have to change things slightly.

TLDR;

It's a feature with a small bug, and in my case the pro outweighs the con.

You can get a mechanical keyboard for £45. But should you? We pulled an Aukey KM-G6 out of the bargain bin

It could have been an F, but I don't remember it having the function row on the left side or the ears for the feet.

M's could have either PS/2 or AT cables, and I distinctly remember this one having a detachable AT cable. Seems 1993 was the cutoff year for them to be detachable.

As far as mice, I'm completely hooked on the MX Master 3 right now.

Trackballs are good, but my environment at work would kill them rather quickly due to particulate and oil. They're also a wee bit hard for me to game on.

I don't see the need for touchpads. I'd gladly trade that useless square/rectangle for a Wacom pen digitizer in the screen and a less compressed laptop keyboard layout.

I need to go hunting for that keyboard when I get a good weekend at home.

Maybe I should use membrane domes and a copy of DOS on 5.25" as bait for the trap?

I bought a black Unicomp EnduraPro at the tail end of 2017 for work. Remake of the IBM M13 with the Trackpoint in it.

Sounds like an ammo dump cooking off when I get typing, but it's just so darn comfy and the integrated mouse is perfect for quick stuff.

Gaming on it is strictly hilarious for the noise (Rip and Tear on lunch hour), and only slightly hindered by the hysteresis of the spring resetting.

Someplace I have an old AT Model M, but it's been hiding so I don't press it into service at home.

I've been tempted to get a new style mechanical keyboard, but the reality is I'd slowly end up spending way too much time making custom ones once I pop that genie bottle cork.

Dumpster diving to revive a crashing NetWare server? It was acceptable in the '90s

Re: Genius ...

Again, halftime show material.

Take the blooming upvote!

Elevating cost-cutting to a whole new level with million-dollar bar bills

Re: radio interferences

The real question is, did hey stay at the Hilton?

I'll get my coat.

Royal Navy nuclear submarine captain rapped for letting crew throw shoreside BBQ party

They intentionally distance sub crews from any news that could "compromise" the mission.

It's also been said in a few articles that sub crews were explicitly not told about the pandemic.

Unless they were informed on the way back to port, it's a literal case of they didn't know at the time.

Hope nobody gets canned for it.

Getting shades of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect with the house and bypass thing.

Getting a pizza the action, AS/400 style

Re: Savagery?

Depends if it's the Aussie or UK/US office.

In case you need more proof the world's gone mad: Behold, Apple's $699 Mac Pro wheels

Re: These are wheely gweat!

Think printer ink, but worse.

If the proper serialized wheel, currently in-license (monthly fee), activated to current main system serial number(s) (Can't have second hand/shared use sales...), is not in the designated corner, the computer won't function.

Oh great, now I've likely given them an idea...

NASA dons red and blue cardboard 3D glasses to drive Curiosity rover because its GPUs are stuck in the office

I actually did a final project for my digital imaging course on stereoscopic video.

Made up the spreader bar with adjustment for interocular distance, stuffed two commodity digicams running CHDK on there, and post processed all the frames to work with ColorCode (amber/blue) glasses.

Pretty sure there were some NASA stereoscopic images of the moon used in the actual course.

I find the amber/blue encoding method to be clearer than red/blue, but ColorCode is still under patent till 2024.

Stop us if you've heard this before: Boeing's working on 737 Max software fixes for autopilot, stabilization bugs

One way to fix.

Only one way to fix this that I can see.

rm -rf /datastorage/designs/737_MAX

mkdir /datastorage/designs/737_MAX_V2

Icon because that's what rm -rf does...

BOFH: Will the last one out switch off the printer?

New recipe time for me!

Never had bhajis, and onion rings are starting to become blasé.

Unless someone can provide me with a better recipe, I'll be trying this one tonight.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/onion-bhajis-raita

Bravo bravo, food and IT are an amazing combo!

It's time to track people's smartphones to ensure they self-isolate during this global pandemic, says WHO boffin

Re: But I don't have a so-called "smart" phone.

To alleviate some confusion my short initial response may have caused:

The CDMA carriers (VZW/Sprint in US, others elsewhere), who did not use a SIM like the GSM (TDMA/FDMA) carriers (ATT/T-Mobile in US) used, would rely on an MEID to identify the device on the network.

The MEID was frequently the IMEI with the last digit truncated off.

You had to type the MEID in to a website/recite it over a different phone to a support person, then wait for activation when switching the device to a different account. Many carriers also had a special number you called to activate, where the MEID automatically tied to the account when credentials were verified.

LTE uses OFDM, and usually an IMEI/IMSI combo, with the IMSI provided by either a SIM or software simulation of one. Apple and Google use soft-SIM in some phones if memory serves.

Quite a few handsets will still connect to a network for emergency services call (911/999), using the IMEI/MEID in absence of a SIM.

CDMA handsets (VZW 3G known for sure) will try to connect to their main network on powerup, and the back-end will either allow or deny service based on if the MEID is in the providers database.

The switchover from 3G/LTE as needed, provisions for roaming, and cell site handover while moving means the cellular modem will always be trying to connect to something. If it wasn't, the system wouldn't be as robust. The triangulation based on which towers can pick up the handset signal also pinpoints you, closer than you may care to think.

Smart vs Legacy doesn't really come into play much.

Re: But I don't have a so-called "smart" phone.

IMEI is still tied to you.

Sucks, but true.

You're not fooling anyone on that vid-conference call: Walmart says shirt sales soaring, pants not pulled up

Re: Trousers? BAH! I go nekkid!

Take your upvote.

Take it.

I would love to see that as a halftime show, but only if you at least wear a kilt.

Short of tech talent to deal with novel coronavirus surge? Let us help – with free job ads on The Register

Re: Good move.

I know vultures are usually well adept at handling rotten/bloated/decaying things, but be careful you don't give them something too toxic.

We have a fusing ball of hydrogen for disposing of that.

Icon because it's the closest thing to the sun.

Taiwan collars coronavirus quarantine scofflaws with smartphone geo-fences. So, which nation will be next?

Re: Which is more important, Privacy or Death?

Exploding coffee, or just a little extra added to it to make the heart explode?

Takes "Nitro cold brew" to a whole different place of mind.

The shelves may be empty, but the disk is full: Not even Linux can resist the bork at times

Re: R/O FS

I get roughly a year on my dashcam cards, filming 4K front and 1080 rear, loop filling the card and tagging motion events.

Samsung EVO Select U3 cards, 128GB capacity.

The internal wear leveling seems to do a good job.

When the world ends – coronavirus plague, WW3, whatever – all that will be left are cockroaches and Larry Ellison trash talking his rivals

Hey hey hey, that's an insult to the FINE folks at Sierra On-Line, equating a walking talking slime mould to their (possibly non)lovable character Leisure Suit Larry!

Mine's the one with the cheat sheet for the intro questions in the pocket...

"You have 5 seconds to comply. 4. 3. 2. 1. I am now authorized to use physical force!"

Icon because it's the closest thing, and might actually be part of their "reinforcement" team...

Borklays soz for the ailing ATMs but won't say if fix involved a Microsoft invoice

Re: Wrong spelling abuse

Fibre.

Why does everyone spell it fiber?

And then there's Canadian English, where it gets even weirder.

Icon, because it's a mystery.

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

Re: I have done the calculation

But if my clothes are in the boot, where is the snake going to live, under the bonnet?

I'll see myself out...

Re: listening order

Infinitely improbable they'll play in the "proper" order, for practical purposes.

I'm too lax to do the math on that shuffle and get actual probability of that happening.

Need to get another car towel...

Computer, deactivate self-destruct system requirement, says Sonos... were it on a starship in space, and not a smart-speaker slinger

Just make it loud enough you can hear it from the driveway...

I'm of the mind that every room in my eventual gut-and-rebuild gets a fiber pair to a keystone plate, ample power points, and conduit runs through the walls to keystone plates for the den/cinema room wiring.

I've currently got a mixed bag of (1x)Onkyo TX-NR636, (2x)Pioneer CS-77, (2x)Pioneer CS-77A, (2x)RCA 100W bookshelf (40-5014? I forget...), (1x)CV SL-45C, (2x)CV SL-10S with a lovely little SONY PS-LX510 turntable, and it does me just fine for "whole house" listening.

The RCA's are front upper, Pioneers side and rear.

Icon for what the neighbors think when the phased SL-10S's start whumping to some techno...

We regret to inform you there are severe delays on the token ring due to IT nerds blasting each other to bloody chunks

"I hope no one is playing Doom on those"

Just wait, Boeing will try to cheap out on infotainment screen networking in their spaceliners next...

It's Terpin time: Bloke who was SIM jacked twice by Bitcoin thieves gets green light to sue telco for millions

Tinfoil Hat Time

"Hey, Boss, I found how we can plug that $20 mill budget shortfall that the executive bathroom breath mint and canape service ran up..."

Icon because otherwise someone would think I was serious...

Good news, everyone: The US military says it will be ethically minded about how it develops AI

I hope they offer proper medical to them.

If not, we'll have Marvin, with that pain down every diode in his left side, PTSD, and depression so bad it can kill the spaceliners.

Mine's the one with the (dish)towel in the pocket.

Come on baby light me on fire: McDonald's to sell 'Quarter Pounder' scented candles

My trick is to only have those monstrosities once a month or so, usually in the warmer months, to keep the pounds off.

Although, now that I have a deep fryer, I'm thinking about doing either a tempura/beer batter or cheesy panko breaded version...

McDouble might work as a candle...

I found something funny a while back.

Order a McDouble, put in fridge overnight.

When you take it out the next day, it has a texture throughout that's close to waxy lard or SPAM. Still tastes edible though.

Not a knock on the chain, some stuff just happens when food is outside it's service temperature.

My preference is a big half pound single patty with cheddar, an egg, caramelized onions, mushrooms, bbq sauce, and maybe some pulled pork or fried peppers. Slap it all between two cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches for buns, and consume with a good pint of high ABV stout.

Your McDonald's demo has expired. For full functionality, please purchase a licence or try another fast-food joint

Re: That looks like...

I use Autodesk Inventor for various things to do with the side gig.

The Win7 install on the side gig machine had the "Aero" options turned off because it doesn't perk my coffee so to speak.

All was well, till an update of Inventor HSM responded by not showing certain screen overlay controls for backplot and simulation of toolpaths till the bloody transparency/aero was turned on again.

That's my moaning and micturition about that little bit of fluffery.

Icon because that's what I sometimes feel like doing to the GUI world, run DBAN and bring it back to command prompt to re-evolve.

Researchers trick Tesla into massively breaking the speed limit by sticking a 2-inch piece of electrical tape on a sign

Re: Sigh.

Adaptive cruise is a nice feature, been thinking about retrofitting it into my car.

It was an option the first owner never selected.

OK, which Dombås stuffed Windows 10 to bursting at Swedish flatpack flinger?

Re: Dombås

Sorta like this.

https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Baron_of_Hell/Doom

Mine's the one with a copy of everything but Doom3 in the pocket.

Re: IKEA is great

Now I'm tempted to Google Search to see if StartPage is a search service, the condensation of the literal "Go to the start page of the browser and type it in there." into a verb, or if it's a third party plugin.

Another week, another bunch of Windows 10 machines punched by a patch

Re: Windows 10 system wake up for updates

No more wakeup timers for me, thanks! Seeing as the lappy lives in a neoprene sleeve, that could get expensive as it heats itself to reflow...

Just for reference, this is going through the "control panel" path.

Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options

The power and sleep settings dialog opened from the shart menu would be "additional power settings" on the right side > (current active power plan) plan settings

I dislike how there's now 5 ways to get to the same setting, each seemingly a bodge by a different group/department.

Not a Genius move after all: Apple must cough up $$$ in back pay for store staff forced to wait for bag searches

Baltimore, who's your friend...

(Sorry, word play is my core reason for being around some days...)

Startup Mycroft AI declares it will fight 'patent troll' tooth and nail after its Linux voice-assistant attracts lawsuit

Re: How mental is Texas?

That's the perfect type of smile, the biting kind!

Oh good, the FTC has discovered acqui-hires... American watchdog to probe decade of Big Tech takeovers

Ahahahaahahhahaha.

Given that is mostly FCC purview, and we have an Ajit in there, probably not.

I need a keyboard clean, STAT.

Latest battery bruiser Android from budget Moto G range appears ahead of MWC after an Amazon whoopsie

Re: Still no wireless charging that costs pennies to include?

I think that's part of it. Till phones become fully waterproof without ports, it makes sense to use the port.

I had wireless charge in my Droid MAXX, it was cool for the first week or two, then I slowly stopped using it.

The biggest issue being it wouldn't work optimally through a good shock-proof case, and was finicky with the orientation to keep it charging. Was also slower to charge.

I'm not knocking it, it worked fine, but not having it included is not a deal breaker for me when handset shopping.

BOFH: Darn Windows 7. It's totally why we need a £1k graphics card for a business computer

Oooh, all the shiny in that one!

I have a Model M 13 clone. Sounds like war when I get typing. It wasn't expensed, because it will never leave me.

https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/FeaturedProducts/UB40PGA

Also have an MX Master 3 that went on expenses, because mice tend to not last till the heat death of the universe.

Fed-up air safety bods ban A350 pilots from enjoying cockpit coffees

Re: Only obvious now?

Not too far off, but intake vs outflow.

From what I can tell, it was in part to limit consumption flow rate. Just like removing the 3L from circulation.

Because nobody would ever buy a second 2L bottle and just drink an extra liter total per day.

Paris, because she's seen it all.

The dregs of this one are starting to show.

Maybe time to read the tea leaves and find an answer?

Re: Gobsmacked!

Would also prevent damage from much more caustic substances in the event of air sickness.

BSOD Burgerwatch latest: Do you want fries with that plaintext password?

Re: Surprised they don't use *NIX

They usually are based on an industrial embedded controller running dedicated firmware, not an off-the-shelf multitasking operating system.

Some of the much older ones still use drum systems. Think old dishwasher/washing machine timer units.