Posts by aks

Mark it in your diaries: 14 October 2025 is the end of Windows 10

Re: MS will probably nuke any x86 code too

Microsoft have previous form.

16-bit apps ended up being supported in their own sandbox on 32-bit windows.

The word I heard is that the next Windows will have 32-bit apps running in a sandbox, maybe 64-bit Windows apps in another, Linux in another and the overall Windows management OS will simply become a hypervisor. It may even be Linux based.

If it wasn't for the fact that Apple would throw *all* their toys out of the pram, various flavours of Apple would be capable of running in sandboxes, as they do currently in a VM on Windows.

I'm more interested in whether Android apps would be supported. It would certainly be possible for Xbox to merge into this scenario.

LInux maybe, but Apple never.

Cloudflare launches campaign to ‘end the madness’ of CAPTCHAs

Re: Hardware dongles?

I fully agree with all of the above except regarding the Windows 10 UI. I much prefer the simplistic style to the gaudy one which came with Windows XP, and don't get me started on Apple's grey-on-grey style.

Re: ambiguous scenes

I remember reading somewhere that the CAPCHA system was designed for exactly that purpose. I think it was an old article here on the Register.

Google gets into the international money transfer business, one-way out of the USA

I've been using Wise (Transferwise) for some time. It seems to cover this field quite well already, with more to come.

GBP, EUR, USD as standard right now.

Known software issue grounds Ingenuity Mars copter as it attempted fourth flight

Re: Have you tried switching it off and on again?

AFAIR Ingenuity was always intended as an advanced prototype. It's there on this mission to learn what works and what doesn't. If it achieves any serious scientific results, that's a very welcome bonus.

Fingers firmly crossed that it does achieve those results, but it's already a tremendous success in this initial phase.

Microsoft demotes Calibri from default typeface gig, starts fling with five other fonts

Microsoft’s new default font options, rated

What do the new fonts look like?

https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/28/microsofts-new-default-font-options-rated/

UK's National Cyber Security Centre recommends password generation idea suggested by El Reg commenter

Re: annual student handbook at Brunel University

Way back when, as a student at the new Lancaster University and living in Morecambe, I was told that in the 1950s,one street had held 50 pubs. Pub-crawl anyone?

Amazon claims victory after warehouse workers in Alabama vote to reject union

Re: Why the need for a vote?

I'm assuming that anyone can join a union but the company doesn't have to recognise the union as representing anybody. With a positive vote, the company would be obliged to negotiate with the union as representing all of their members.

Airline software super-bug: Flight loads miscalculated because women using 'Miss' were treated as children

Re: Not necessarily.

We're served by 18-seater Dornier 228's and the weight allocation is done by weighing all baggage and humans eyeballing the passengers. I've even experienced the pilot moving people before takeoff to balance the weight-distribution.

Yep, the 'Who owns Linux?' case is back from the dead

Find yourself another court.

Australian ponders requiring multiple IDs to sign up for social media, plus more crypto-busting backdoors

I've always thought that 1 penny or 1 cent per email would reduce spam from the simplest random-name spam generator but less so from bought-in address lists. I have no idea how such charging could be implemented.

Re: False Dilemma...

Why do I feel that the creeps are busy building the panopticon as we speak.

1984 is getting nearer by the day.

Sadly, the catastrophic impact with Apophis asteroid isn't going to happen in 2068

Re: Wish upon a star

A small array of high speed cameras could capture it as it flies by, whatever its speed is.

To take a sample, you'll need to start moving soon to be able to match speed. Apparently, the Chinese plan to shadow it and maybe sample it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

Microsoft 365 tries again at filtering swearing, bad behavior: Classifiers for seven languages offered

Re: minimize comm risks by helping you detect, capture, act on inappropriate messages

Somebody would have that authority. What's the chances it isn't you?

Seagate UK customer stung by VAT on replacement drive shipped via the Netherlands

Surely the solution is for you to deal directly with Seagate UK. If they acquire replacements from the EU, USA or China that should not be something you need be aware of.

As someone living outside of the UK and EU, when we post any items to the UK the Post Office imposes VAT on that item.

Death Becomes It: Who put the Blue in the Blue Screen of Death?

Straight to Windows 2000 as soon as possible, for me.

Healthy 32-year-old offered COVID-19 vaccine because doctors had him down as 6.2cm tall with BMI of 28,000

Re: people replaced by algorithms ... or just poor coding...

The coding is the easy part. I discovered during my first job writing programs that the data validation code occupied at least as many lines of code and a lot more brainpower than coding to the algorithm.

Later, when doing support, I discovered plenty of examples of gaps (even in my own perfect code). I then immensely enjoyed testing code to destruction, especially common in edge-effect tests. Divide-by-zero exception anybody?

Australia facepalms as Facebook blocks bookstores, sport, health services instead of just news

Re: Screw Australia's clumsy attempt....

Facebook (which I don't use) have simply said that they can't guarantee to filter out news links from any other links and don't want to risk being sued for a link that is later judged to be news.

They will *not* pay for the privilege. If Australia succeeds in getting money from them then other countries will follow. Google have gone a different way by striking a deal with Rupert Murdoch.

Previous attempts to force money from Google exploded in their faces. Not linking meant that users did not follow the links and the website in question became invisible and therefore lost money. The website then asked Google to link to them with a simple headline and abstract.

European Commission redacts AstraZeneca vaccine contract – but forgets to wipe the bookmarks tab

Re: And the EU still can't understand why the UK left.

This may be why the UK were the first to identify this strain.

(paywall, but enough to get the idea and research further)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-u-k-became-world-leader-in-sequencing-the-coronavirusgenome-11612011601

In a trial run, Google Chrome to corral netizens into groups for tailored web ads rather than target individuals

The options seem to be, advertising funded, subscription funded, state funded, and special interest group funded. This applies to the web, radio, TV, etc.

I'm not sure if one-time purchase funded fits into this breakdown.

BTW, I don't have a solution to the question.

When it comes to taxing tech giants, America is out, France is in, Canada and Indonesia are going their own way

A tax on turnover is pretty much what VAT does.

Dell online store charges 16 million dollars for new laptop with paint job

Pedant Alert

<pedant>

£12,000,558.98 includes VAT

That converts to £10,000,465.80 without VAT

£10,000,465.80 in USD is $13,288,618.96, which would attract local sales tax.

I assume the correct price would be £465.80 without VAT and £558.96 for those of you who need to pay it.

</pedant>

You can now pepper your Windows 10 desktop with Android apps... if you have a Samsung phone, that is

Black text on a dark background. Is this Microsoft's answer to Apple's pale grey on a white background?

The truth is, honest people need willpower to cheat, while cheaters need it to be honest

Re: Theft is taking with the intention of depriving the owner of the thing stolen

It is rarely the musician or other creative person who benefits, but the organisation behind the product.

Few composers or performers retain the copyright to their work.

Geneticists throw hands in the air, change gene naming rules to finally stop Microsoft Excel eating their data

Using CSV? That's far dumber and open to misinterpretation than Excel's default of interpreting text strings as dates or numbers using Standard format rather than Text.

Use Tab-separated files rather than CSV wherever possible.

First rule of Ransomware Club is do not pay the ransom, but it looks like Carlson Wagonlit Travel didn't get the memo

"I still contend that any non-sovereign government backed currency is a scam and waiting to be unloaded onto the next sucker"

I'm not sure why you regard sovereign government backed currency as not being a scam.. If it quacks like a duck ...

Someone made an AI that predicted gender from email addresses, usernames. It went about as well as expected

Re: Artificial Idiocy

My pet rock is offended by your derogatory insinuation! How very dare you!!

Re: 100% foolproof gender identification method

Would I lie to you‽

Re: why even bother ?

The sellers (maybe creators) of these tools want to identify the individual by many categories, not simply sex/gender. Age, profession, nationality, language, residence, income, political preference etc. They will happily sell their wares to advertisers even though all the evidence shows that the contents and topic of the webpage being viewed is a much better identifier of that individual's interests.

Re: Work with facts

Sex and gender were the same until recently.

The complaint seems confused

The tool is being criticised for being rubbish at accurately identifying gender. This may well be true but does it predict better than random? This might have value to advertisers. It would presumably be capable of improvement but can never be 100%.

The second criticism is that it dares to ignore the current agenda that gender doesn't exist and is a purely social construct. Advertisers don't care, they want to sell to anybody with money and if the tool could identify the individual's personal opinions and self-image they'd be willing to pay for that.

If you think you've got problems, pal, spare a thought for these boffins baffled by 'oddball' meteorites

Re: Weird objects showing signs of being both Melty and Non-melty origin?

That's why you're advised not to pick up a freshly-fallen meteorite, not because it's hot but because it's very very cold.

Nominet shakes up system for expiring .uk domains, just happens to choose one that will make it £millions. Again

Re: Nominet needs to go

Non-profit organisations are created to fill the pockets of the directors as there are no shareholders to hold them to account and no profits to generate taxable income.

If you can read this, your Windows 10 2004 PC really is connected to the internet no matter what the OS claims

I've certainly experienced very similar symptoms to those described but when looking in the registry using regedit, the parameter is at another level down and the option is already activated.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet

EnableActiveProbing=1

Windows 10 Pro, Version 20H2, OS Build 19042.388

I was screwed over by Cisco managers who enforced India's caste hierarchy on me in US HQ, claims engineer

Re: "HR" - there's your problem.

You left out Diamond. ;)

Re: How did they learn he was Dalit?

I remember the old anecdote about the guy in Northern Ireland who was approached by a gang and challenged by the question of "are you Protestant or Catholic?". His answer that he was an atheist resulted in the question "Yes, but are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?".

Hats off to the brave 7%ers who dived into the Windows 10 May 2020 Update within a month of release

Re: Printing fail yet again!

I don't remember quite how but I tamed my New Folder page quite quickly, starting with the Focused option.

It now has a very clean look, showing only the Microsoft icon+name, the Search box, and my eight favourites. No extensions.

Running Windows 10 Pro, 20H2, build 19042.330.

University of California San Francisco pays ransomware gang $1.14m as BBC publishes 'dark web negotiations'

Never negotiate

Simply make it a criminal offence to cooperate with these criminals. Certainly to contact such people except as part of a police operation.

They're doing it to make money. Deny them the money, it only encourages them.

The girl with the dragnet tattoo: How a TV news clip, Insta snaps, a glimpse of a tat and a T-shirt sold on Etsy led FBI to alleged cop car arsonist

Re: Hitler a communist, hah!

Mussolini was a Fascist which was corporatist socialism. The state ruled.

Hitler was a National Socialist not a Fascist. The state ruled.

Stalin was an International Socialist. The state ruled.

When war was declared by the UK it was because Hitler and Stalin agreed to invade Poland together.

The normal term at the time to describe these three was Totalitarians.

If Fairphone can support a 5-year-old handset, the other vendors could too. Right?

Re: I expect that I will be downvoted...

Likewise with my Microsoft Lumia 950 XL from 2015.

Updated until the end of December 2019. Apps still updating. WhatsApp dropped support at that point but Telegram works fine.

Removable battery, USB-C, 3.5 inch audio jack, 20 Megapixel camera, Dual SIM, 32GB.

Only true boffins will be able to grasp Blighty's new legal definitions of the humble metre and kilogram

Re: Oh dear...poor use of symbols and units

Austria

https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/29/austria_budget_millions/

Franco-German cloud framework floated to protect European's data from foreign tech firms slurpage

Re: Free Trade

This seems to be designed to benefit France and Germany. The other 25 will get crumbs.

France have clearly insisted that this must be based in a French speaking country (Belgium) as they did when setting up Brussels + Strasbourg as headquarters of the EEC/EC/EU.

I can't see Poland being given a look-in but they'll be forced to comply and to pay.

No more installing Microsoft's Chromium-centered Edge by hand: Windows 10 will do it for you automatically

Re: I like it

On the new Edge > Settings > Privacy and services >

--------------

Clear browsing data

This includes history, passwords, cookies and more. Only data from this profile will be deleted. Manage your data

Clear browsing data now

Choose what to clear

Choose what to clear every time you close the browser

----------------

Publishers sue to shut down books-for-all Internet Archive for 'willful digital piracy on an industrial scale'

Re: But what about...

Amazon is focused on selling new books. It also now owns Abebooks which is focused on second-hand books. You can find almost anything there.

Looking for Isaac Asimov on abebooks.co.uk finds:

Books (37,241)

Magazines & Periodicals (1,830)

Comics (7)

Filtering those, I find 190 first edition, signed, with dust-jacket available.

Watch an oblivious Tesla Model 3 smash into an overturned truck on a highway 'while under Autopilot'

In the video, there's a human about 100 yards in advance of the truck who's attempting to wave down the car.

Neither the human nor the car seem to take any notice.

Guess who came thiiis close to signing off a €102k annual budget? Austria. Someone omitted 'figures in millions'

Wikipedia says different. United States customary units

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units

They are same as Imperial measurements for length but different for some other units such as volume.

You need to use the IEC standard binary prefixes for such numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

Filezilla allows you to select the notation.

A one terabyte drive will be 1,000,000,00 bytes.

Re: the key words "figures in billions"

Billions don't come into it. As the article says, the missing wards are "figures in millions".

You seem to be off on a tangent, interesting though that is.

After 30 years of searching, astroboffins finally detect the universe's 'missing matter' – using fast radio bursts

If they've now found a lot of missing matter, rather thinly spread but cumulatively significant, does that mean that the ratio of matter to that of dark energy and dark matter needs to be adjusted?