Posts by Oz

Hip hop-eration: Hopless Franken-beer will bring you hoppiness

Re: Hop Infused Beverages

Hogs Back. Top stuff!

Not heard of the latter, but I may have to go snuffle it out....

Office junior had one job: Tearing perforated bits off tractor-feed dot matrix printer paper

Re: I think I had one of those printers

We had a Juki daisywheel printer at home. It was slow and very noisy. You knew when someone was printing as the whole house reverberated!

Sysadmin left finger on power button for an hour to avert SAP outage

Re: Fast fingers

I have saved myself from a thorough dressing down doing just that back in the mid 90s. I held the power button down on a server to force a power off, realised it was the wrong server, thankfully before letting go again and, after several minutes of holding the button in and deliberating, was able to release and re-press the button before the power dropped out.

WikiLeave? Assange tipped for Ecuadorian eviction

Re: He could do with some fresh air

Aye, a walk round the block should cure what ails him!

At Christmas, do you give peas a chance? Go cold turkey? What is the perfect festive feast?

Re: Turducken

Surely it's Tuckey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken?

Hence Tur - duck - en?

YouTuber cements head inside microwave oven

With a name like SkippyBing I'd have expected you to self-identify as a Kangaroo ;-)

Someone told Google to nuke links to mean reviews of disgraced telco True Telecom

Re: Streisand effect

Just gone into administration too?

https://commsbusiness.co.uk/news/true-telecom-enters-administration-after-85k-fine/

Re: Streisand effect

I remember seeing them advertising what seemed very cheap monthly line rental. The catch? You had to sign a 10 year contract! There were also loads of other T&Cs...

Unbreakable Locky ransomware is on the march again

"One of the attacks delivers Locky through a twice-zipped attachment in emails with no subject or body text."

And yet it's guaranteed that someone will open the zips, despite all the warnings given

Apple Watch sales go over a cliff: Down 2.8 meellion per quarter in a year

TomTom Spark will do all of that, and costs only £189. It's a no-brainer

Fitbit picks up Pebble, throws Pebble as far as it can into the sea

Re: Solutions looking for problems

"Non-Gregorian calendars? Because I'm suddenly going to go back and live in the middle ages?"

Public Holiday information? Because I've suddenly lost all my braincells and can't remember public holidays?"

No, but if you are in Nepal or parts of India then you will find that it's 2072-2073 not 2016, as they use the Vikram Samvat calendar. I partner with a charity out in Kathmandu there so having that information to hand for official paperwork is a necessity. Also the public holidays are useful to know when arranging events.

Work ends on Open Virtualisation Format

Re: OVF doesn't work

That's not my experience. I have a number of OVF imported VMs running just fine in v5.5. Admittedly I can't say if these were created in Virtual Box or not (I'm guessing not) but I've not had any import issues at all.

Petulant Facebook claims it can't tell the difference between child abuse and war photography

Re: Ummm . . .

There are genitalia (just about) visible, but is the photo designed to create sexual excitement? Only for those with a very disturbed mind

Intel Basis fans burned again: Refund checks for scalding smartwatches bounce

Re: checks and cheques

The cynic in me says the reason they haven't done this is that they hope some people will forget to pay in the refund cheque, and so save Intel/Basis a bit of cash...

Oh dear, Vodafone: Sales dip in UK

Nothing to do with their terrible shops?

I've bought two contracts in Vodafone shops in the last year, and both went wrong.

The first they packed me off with a PAYG SIM for a pay monthly contract, and I send ages with Tech Support trying to get the SIM working before they figured out it was the wrong SIM type.

The second I was sent away with a SIM and number which, I discovered when I tried to activate it, were not actually registered against my account. So I had to head back to the shop for them to replace the SIM and update my account.

Both times I had to use Vodafone's Chat Online option to diagnose the problems, as you're apparently no longer able to speak to anyone via phone - it does the job but it takes so long to get anything done. I can't believe it's actually saving the company any money.

Lester Haines: RIP

Re: Uncle Lester

Condolences to all you. 55 is really no age :-(

Brit 'naut Tim Peake tucks into space bacon sarnie

Re: Surely ketchup

It is in my world, but I believe the aficionados choose brown sauce with bacon...

Smut-seeding Prenda Law ringleader must sell home to pay $2.5m debt

Re: No Assets?

No need. The court found them guilty so it's not alleged - it's proven

TalkTalk website STILL down on day TWO

It's my life!

(and so on....)

Don't want to upgrade to Windows 10? You'll download it WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Re: Something Missing

I'm confused by all this. I "upgraded" to Windows 10 last night and, despite the fact the installer assured me all files were downloaded, it spent another two hours downloading more guff. My PC apparently didn't have the full 3Gb. Sounds like there's an anomaly somewhere....

Google robo-car in rear-end smash – but cack-handed human blamed

Re: Poor insurance risk

That's because the insurers choose to think that careless people use that car park so you are at risk of being hit again.

Mars rover Opportunity shuns dodgy flash chips, relies on RAM

Re: Those panels are asking for "wash me"

Or another builder's favourite - "I wish my wife was as dirty as this van"!

Election? Pah. Here's the REAL question: Who’s the SEXIEST MP?

Re: Penny Mordaunt FTW

Charlotte Leslie in the swimsuit - hubba hubba!

Woman caught on CCTV performing drunken BJ blew right to privacy

Re: I feel sorry for her unborn kid

Apparently "the stress of all the attention from the situation caused her to go into early labour". Nothing to do with drinking while pregnant then!

Win! El Reg exceedingly fine mug collection

Re: Black, White or Green???

Indeed - it's Rooibos, made from an entirely different plant. These guys do a variety of mixes, if case you want to confuse the hell out of your tastebuds!

http://www.davidstea.com/rooibos-en

Turbocharged quad-core Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed, global geekgasm likely

Re: Video playback

Seriously, Andy Tunnah, go XBMC. I barely know anything about Linux, but you can get a image with it ready to install - just select it from the boot menu and off it goes. There's basic configuration of movie sources to do but, basically, it's a POP. If you get a remote control for it, once it's configured it will just work like any other media device once it's powered up. Even my cat could use it ;-)

For example - this is the B+, but this kit has it all for you. You can't go wrong, literally!

http://cpc.farnell.com/raspberry-pi/rpi-modb-media-kit/raspberry-pi-model-b-media-kit/dp/SC13533#accessories

Answered my question

I bought B+ recently, to use as a media player. It's a bit sluggish as it is, but you've told me exactly what I need to do to get it working smoothly - thanks. Main delays are list navigation using the remote - keyboard is fine.

Man trousers $15,000 domain name for $10.99 amid registry cockup

Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

But sex.com is worth a bloody fortune, so it can work both ways. I agree with you in the majority though - with Google being so well-known, typing a full URL to find something is a rarity

El Reg tests portable breathalyzers: Getting drunk so you don't have to

Re: UK

The police probably didn't reply because, in all honesty, these sort of gadgets are not reliable enough to take at face value. Hampshire Police tweeted something to that effect a couple of weeks ago. They have been tweeting a unit chart instead which says how quickly units of each type and size of drink will take to be clear of your system. I know they err on the side of caution but it is pretty scary. As a rule of thumb go for 1 unit per hour and you should be fine

Apple knob refusenik Sir Jony Ive handed award - for talking BOLLOCKS

amanfrommars

"The attitude of churlish indifference seems like nerdish deference contrasted with the belligerent antipathy of the indigenous farm folk, who regard the hippie-dippie interlopers, the denizens of the shimmering tit temples, as one fey step away from transvestites."

This is not Russell Brand speak, but a quote from amanfrommars! (Professor icon for obvious reasons)

Useless 'computer engineer' Barbie fired in three-way fsck row

Re: "...she starts a pillow fight with her sister."

I was thinking the same thing - two guys come to "fix the computer"... I get ya! Low-brow p0rn0 flick, here we come

Could YOU identify these 10 cool vintage mobile phones?

Re: Maybe I'm old

I bought my first mobile as soon as getting a job after University. It was one of these bad boys:

http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/etacs_mobiles.php

It was quite good, from what I remember, although I rarely used it as there weren't that many people I tended to call - plus the call costs were mad!

All but full-fat MS Office to be had on iPads, Droidenslabben for NOWT

Re: I remember

For another Office alternative try Kingsoft Office. Their version of Access and Visio cost money but the basic products are free, and good!

How Hollywood film-makers wove proper physics into Interstellar

Re: Kif Koker

Do you mean Kif Kroker?

http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Kif_Kroker

Lies, damn pies and obesity statistics: We're NOT a nation of fatties

Re: Moving the goals?

Waist circumference on the bottom would not work. It wouldn't differentiate between tall and thin or short and fat. Perhaps

(mass*waist)/height

might be a better starting point?

Apple's Watch is basically electric perfume

Agreed. Mechanically it may be a fine timepiece but, damn, it's fugly!

Hello, police, El Reg here. Are we a bunch of terrorists now?

Re: who the fuck would want to watch it anyway?

I will confess that I have watched a beheading video before - it was about ten years ago, and I had the link emailed to me. I felt physically sick for 3 days and could barely sleep because I was just seeing it in my mind all the time. I can still visualise it clearly now, and really wish I could "unwatch" it. It was very, very unpleasant to say the least. If you are thinking of going hunting for it then don't - really.

Drunkards warned: If you can't walk in a straight line, don't shop online, you fool!

Hazy memory, but....

Didn't they also always feature a Fondue Set as well as the "legendary" cuddly toy?

MPs to sue UK.gov over 'ridiculous' emergency data snooping law

Re: Erroneous Cowherd Contempt

"I am a British voter that was quite content to see the bill passed, if you think I am in some tiny minority then it seems the majority of MPs from all three parties did not."

I might suggest that the party whips and the lack of time might have rather limited the ability and/or interest of MPs to find out what their constituents really thought - apart from the few punters who had the foresight to send the representative an email, of course. I'm pretty confident that the majority who did email their MP were against DRIP

Firefox, is that you? Version 29 looks rather like a certain shiny rival

"palate-style"? I think you mean palette-style. Palate refers to the roof of the mouth or sense of taste.

Sony's PlayStation 4 pwns Xbox in the United States

Re: I'm an Xbox loyalist...

Add to that the fact that many of the decent titles run only 720p or 900p not full 1080p/i and that's why I went and bought a PS4 at the weekend. As a slight aside, finding anywhere with stock is a PITA, but my local Asda came up trumps!

Blocking BitTorrent search sites 'ineffective': Pirate Bay ban lifted for Dutch ISPs

Re: Blocking works

Has Torrent traffic really dropped significantly, or are the Torrent users simply encrypting the streams so it's not detected as such?

Staffs Police face data protection probe over 'drink drivers named' Twitter campaign

Re: Next Sussex Police?

Doh! I do, of course, mean convicted!

Re: @Connor

Contaminated samples

Next Sussex Police?

Sussex Police have also been releasing names of those convinced or at least charged. I guess the ICO will be investigating them soon too.

Whilst I understand what the police forces are trying to do, publicly admonishing people who have not been found guilty by a judge or court must be legally questionable. Perhaps the ICO will name and shame those guilty of releasing this information so if they find the tactic does break data protection?

Here comes Windows 8.1! Microsoft grits teeth, pushes upgrade to world

Re: Its the UI changes that kill it for me...

I have just bought a new PC, for a relative, from a well known supplier with a big red and white web site from their store located on the South Coast. I had the choice of WIndows 7 and Windows 8 and, for ease, I chose Windows 7. So there are ways of keeping Windows but not buying Windows 8

Wanna be Zuckerberg's neighbor? Tough luck, he bought the block for $30m

Re: Oh, fuck you Mr Z...

But then he might shoot you, thinking you were a "burglar"

California kids win right to delete digital past

Re: Why should an individual's private life influence whether or not an employer should hire them?

Yes, you're right - I'm going to murder everyone in the office and steal all their stuff, then burn the building down. Just because I broke the law. Did you exceed the speed limit into work today? Yes? Oops! /sarcasm

Oracle sued over $33,000 bill for SaaS: STRIPPERS as a SERVICE

Re: ::yawns::

Really? This is in Bootnotes where anything goes