Posts by ArrZarr

We know there are a lot of, er, distractions right now but NASA's got some sweet video of its asteroid rubble raiser

I think this calls for a:

"Maths. Fuck yeah."

Re: And with that tiny impact.....

You raise a good point. I wonder what that meeting went like, because NASA probably included that in the risk assessment - does any impact within the scope of the probe's thrust and mass knock the asteroid into a threatening orbit.

Oh, who am I kidding? Aside from the cool as hell maths involved, it was a boring meeting.

A decades-old lesson on not inserting Excel where it doesn't belong

Re: CSV RFC XML TLA

No, it's not a horrible thing to write, but if there were a standard CSV i/o module for C, Java et al, then everybody could use the same one and know what the quirks and bugs of that particular implementation were rather than everybody having their own module with their own quirks and bugs.

Yes, your code has quirks and bugs. All code has quirks and bugs. It would be better if everybody had the same quirky and buggy code.

What a Hancock-up: Excel spreadsheet blunder blamed after England under-reports 16,000 COVID-19 cases

Re: CSV?

When I first encountered a .csv, way back when, I thought "I can whip up a validator for this no problem."

The next day I looked for a library to do it for me. New line characters in a csv are the real PITA.

DPL: Debian project has plenty of money but not enough developers

Re: Window of Opportunity?

Hands up, everybody who wants MS to bugger around with Windows beyond bugfixing.

Oh, nobody? Guess we actually want Windows to stagnate and just do as it's told.

Microsoft to charge $200 for 32 GPU cores, sliver of CPU clockspeed, 6GB RAM, 512GB SSD... and a Blu-Ray player

"Gamers prioritize framerate over resolution"

Let's just put that on the shelf next to all the other no shit soundbites that marketing companies put out.

Resolution (past a certain point) is a nice to have, because a well designed game will look good at any resolution. Framerate is essential because any game will feel crap below <insert personal threshold here>

I won't be ignored: Google to banish caller roulette with Verified Calls

Re: goverments stop being able to be controlled by corporations

Please, that's the world Robocop is heading towards.

1984's control method was to stymie rational debate and the power of friendship.

Apple to Epic: Sue me? No, sue you, pal!

Oh yes, the epic launcher. Sitting there on my PC as the shameful reminder why I should never have bought Satisfactory.

All roads lead to Bork in Kansas as Windows puts on a show for motorists

Still, it's nice to see that problem being shared with drivers.

For a good five seconds, I was wondering how you were certain this was a driver issue.

Surge in home working highlights Microsoft licensing issue: If you are not on subscription, working remotely is a premium feature

Re: The most simple way is not mentioned here?

I'm glad that the voice of wisdom is here. Clearly the govt. should have hired you as an advisor to tell them how to fix everything IT.

Microsoft Teams gets off to a wobbly start as the world and its cat starts working from home

Re: Why the kick in the nuts...?

"If the world burns because of that then so be it. Me and the kid will roast some marshmallows."

- El Reg's view on the world

Google reveals the wheels almost literally fell off one of its cloudy server racks

Re: As Terry Pratchett reminds us

The trick is to do TWO things that each make you one in a million.

That way you are almost certainly unique.

Tinfoil hat brigade switches brand allegiance to bog paper

Re: Netflix stock

By Jove, I think he's got it!

Re: Netflix stock

And keep an eye on Boeing/Airbus to jump on at the bottom of the trough...

Yanking on the space supply chain: Rocket Lab goes Interplanetary with Sinclair acquisition

Almost 40 years after the rivalry between Electron and Sinclair started, it's nice to see them working together finally.

Quick, show this article to the boss, before they ask you to spin your own crisis comms Power App in 2 days

Re: JOINT Remote Control Leverage of Microsoft Kernel Assets.

I've gotten better at realising when posts were created by amfm1. Now it's just a few words before I get bunny ears from seeing the word salad and realise something is off...

Hey, friends. We know it's a crazy time for the economy, but don't forget to enable 2FA for payments by Saturday

I look forwards to the biometrics databases getting hacked so I can change my eyeballs & fingerprints.

Disk stuck in the drive? Don't dilly-Dali – get IT on the case!

The Reg-onomiser just needs to take certain commentard's names and choose one of the words in them at a time to keep you going for another half year or so in some cases..

No joy for all you Rover McRoverface fans: NASA's next Mars bot is christened Perseverance

Officially

The name is probably intended to look like they're noting the long hours and hard work that is required for exploration.

In reality, it's probably talking about the perseverance of dealing with changing governments from Term to Term always changing the goalposts.

Drones must be constantly connected to the internet to give Feds real-time location data – new US govt proposal

Re: Useless

Maybe I should have used the joke icon, I mean come on, the suggestion is obviously terrible.

And yes, I have fired a gun - an L85 Rifle at a target range on an RAF base. My aim was indeed garbage but I was thinking about going to uni to sign up as an engineer so that wasn't my biggest concern.

Re: Useless

That's why the guns should have a 50% chance of working - it gives a chance to improve your odds if everything has gone really TITSUP (Technical Incentive To Shoot Under Pressure)

Re: Useless

The solution for guns is, and always has been to enforce a maximum gun quality which is so low that whenever you pull the trigger, there is a 50% chance of the gun backfiring.

This way, you have to be in a worse than coinflip scenario before using the gun becomes worthwhile.

Fancy that: Hacking airliner systems doesn't make them magically fall out of the sky

Re: TL;DR

In my understanding, the MAX planes were automatically changing trim settings with the faulty readings. In the cases discussed here, the false alarms were purely to inform the pilot.

UK.gov lays out COVID-19 guidance as the tech supply chain considers its own

Re: Government Guidance

OTOH, could you imagine the beating that the Govt. would be letting itself in for if it downplayed the risk and an epidemic were to break out?

This is, as annoying as it might be, the only politically sane option.

Starship bloopers: Watch Elon Musk's Mars ferry prototype explode on the pad during liquid nitrogen test

Re: Unsurprise.

I was going to reply sarcastically, but after checking your post history, I think you just need a hug.

Hey, fatso. If you're standing desk-curious, the VariDesk Pro Plus won't break the bank

Re: Who cares about the desk?...

I think it's a Unicomp Model M - https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/UB40P46

The modifier keys are different, but essentially these guys bought the tooling and rights to make Model Ms when Lexmark stopped making them.

Have no experience on an original Model M, but an happy with my newish one.

Re: Back pain caused by standing

Gee, it's almost like different people are different people.

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

Re: We were doing that at the lab at uni

M-M-M-M-MONSTER KILL!

kill

kill

(kill)

Death and taxis: Windows has had enough of clinging to a cab rooftop in the London rain

Re: Manure in the cloud

And "Singing in the rain" would become a right shitshow.

BAE Systems tosses its contractors a blanket... ban on off-payroll working under upcoming IR35 tax reforms

Re: "[HMRC] has predicted the reforms will recoup £1.2bn a year by 2023"

"...you'll be left with companies that cannot complete projects in the initially projected timeframe, at the initially projected cost..."

Because projects are famous for coming in on time and under budget.

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

Re: I think we need a new acronym... POS is doubly accurate...

The worst is TOS - Time Of Sale, Terms Of Service and Tomb Of Sargeras.

It's entirely possible that the overlap of contract lawyers working in marketing who play World of Warcraft is pretty small though...

Re: That looks like...

You mean like the frosted glass effect of Aero where everybody and their mother is pissing and moaning about the fact that the current flat design is less pretty?

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

Re: All candles at once

And you just wanted to give your SO a Happy Meal.

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

Re: "Relationship-ending"

Depends what you're building. Some things you end up with a lot of very similar but not quite the same metal rods that fit together in a specific way - the triangular trestle table stands are a good example.

Re: "so why do it together?"

I've always considered tasks that require two people to be tests on how proud you are and how unlikely you are to accept help. Ikea has yet to beat me.

"Relationship-ending"

I've never understood this part of Ikea's reputation - the instructions are second only to Lego and even somebody cack-handed and piss weak like me can put everything together solo...so why do it together?

Early adopters delighted as Microsoft pulls plug on Mobile Backend as a Service. Haha, only joking – they're fuming

Re: Risks

To give the benefit of the doubt, this may have been included as a risk in the business plan with a solution of "Let's cross our fingers and hope this doesn't happen".

I expect most business plans include something that looks like that.

Ever had a script you just can't scratch? Excel on the web now has just the thing

I have usually had the luxury of working with people intelligent enough to know that they muck around in the spreadsheet at their own peril. Upon finishing a masterpiece, I always find that sitting down and talking them through the most important parts helps - either they understand what's going on and can take the sheet and run with it or they understand that they don't get it and leave it alone.

For analysing a chunk of data (and as long as it fits in Excel), you can get something out of Excel faster. Then you can display it faster.

If the data doesn't fit in Excel or is already in a Database, then R or Python may well be better.

Also, real Excel wizards use formulae for everything. Resorting to VBA is an act of surrender.

Tens of millions of biz Dell PCs smacked by privilege-escalation bug in bundled troubleshooting tool

Re: Remind me again:

Your family who are running on Business Dell laptops?

Day 4 of outage: UK's Manchester police deploy exciting new carbon-based method to record crime

Re: Impact

Customer facing impact: Minimal (although this is PR speak so to be taken with a lot of salt)

Internal impact: Goddamn huge fire.

Astroboffins may have raged at Elon's emissions staining the sky, but all those satellites will be more boon than bother

Positivity?

Who are you and what have you done with our regular El Reg programming of despair and snide comments?

They can't collect your bins or fix your roads. They let Google stalk visitors to their websites. Yes, it's UK local government

Re: Why do public sector websites have adverts at all?

It's not entirely stupid - instead of thinking of the ad as an advert, think of it as a dynamic link on the homepage to what is reasonably likely to be the most important part of the site for a specific user. Contrary to what you might think, most display campaigns and display providers are chosen due to the strength of their results for the money spent so a place with good targeting is likely to get chosen over a place with weak targeting. This leads to all the display companies trying to make their targeting as swish as possible.

Using that in the same way as a paid for site search function isn't a bad idea...

Re: Why do public sector websites have adverts at all?

Looking at the most tracked site (Enfield), the ads I got were about how to sign up for school meals etc which means they *may* predominantly be using these ads to get people to the right part of the site as quickly as possible.

Internet Society gets tetchy over .org sale delay, half-threatens ICANN over deadlines and jurisdiction

ICANN working as intended

The underlying tech is working just fine, so the way to stop people meddling is to turn obfuscation into an art form and have all the lawyers run rings around each other.

Verity Stob is 'Disgusted of HG Wells': Time, gentlemen, please

Re: Screenwriters with a thin education, and tasked to appeal to the widest audience....

Honestly the thing that bugged me the most was the lack of Daemons for anybody that wasn't important to the story. Oxford University should have looked like a menagerie in the corridors [more than usual, at least - Gen. Melchett] but just wasn't...

Ever wondered what Microsoft really thought about the iPad? Ex-Windows boss spills beans

At the risk of explaining the joke, is it voice control?

Remember that 2024 Moon thing? How about Mars in 2033? Authorization bill moots 2028 for more lunar footprints

Re: Are we there yet?

The best bit about project Orion was the consultation with Coca Cola about the dispensary mechanism which was expected to use the same technology and techniques as vending machines.

Re: Getting to the Moon is no walk in the park

Hence the goal to make launches as cheap, reliable and mundane as possible - widening the net for people who want to put satellites in orbit to improve profits. Also the purpose of starlink (I think that's that it's called) for the satellite internet business.

Beyond that, if Musk can get his hands on either lunar or asteroid mining or becomes the defacto route to space for space mining hardware, then he has a license to print money, especially if he's able to pull off manned outposts on/orbiting the moon - Oxygen seems to be in ready supply within the regolith if you can extract it so there are possibilities for LOX refuelling at a minimum to reduce the mass getting lifted from Earth's gravity well and therefore potential for improving payload capacity on upper stages.