Posts by BebopWeBop

So what happened with the patent judge and the Euro Patent Office?

I would buy in some popcorn, but I suspect it will be stale before anything moves....

Former ZX Spectrum reboot project man departs

Actually I acquired an ICL OPD (remember those folks?) and the microdrive actually did work. I should admit that I fired it up as a joke not expecting the freebie to work let alone the collection of stringies and it fi. I have turned it on since, but only to show it off to a visitor ±(one of the few that are intrigued by a room full of machines from the 70s and 80s - for some reason my partner likes to steer visitors away and I am sure I have heard mutterings about - "nice room - a small tumble down those stairs and you would have a lovely guest room" but I am probably mistaken, well at least until I fail to keep her Linux laptop running!

The North remembers: York scraps Uber's licence over data breach

Re: Oi!! (II)

Well not really. Based on common press usage, the North refers to Northern England. They then mass Wales into either South or North, and Scotland, mainland or picturescue highlands, occasionally with islands appended. Now in Scotland of course the South seems to very occasionally refer to England, and splitting my time between Edinburgh (common descriptions from the west === poncy bastard), and the Borders (turncoat Bastard - long memories of the Reavers round here where distinguishing between the pirates who ruled the border areas - England and Scotland - was difficult, they stole from everyone)you get a different type of distinction. I supose (although not having lived there) that Wales has the advantage, speaking a fairly healthy and robust alternative language in lots of the country and can distinguish between "southern bastards", "English speaking bastards" and "English incomer bastards"

Signing up for the RAF? Don't bother – you've been Capita'd

Re: Quoted on the BBC

One might have expected their "new hounds" (arf arf) to have picked up what has been a festering and not too private sore for some time

Re: A bit predictable

It makes one quite dizzy, all those revolving door and half of them are not included in your account!

The eagle has been grounded: Dutch anti-drone squadron retired

Re: Fully Operational

Talking to your rats - third sign of madness....

'DJI Mavic' drone seen menacing London City airliner after takeoff

Re: Why not ban planes?

I have always find carrying half (carefully measured and cut I should emphasise) protect me from the danged tree creatures. Got the tip from a frequent flyer.

US authorities issue strongly worded warnings about crypto-investments

Re: Bitcoin fees

I've no idea how much cocaine costs, these figures are for illustrative purposes only.

I don't indulge and really only have the (I suspect somewhat inflated) PSS - police standard scale to go by, as reported in the press on the value of drugs hauls, but I think 1 bitcoin will get you an awful lot of cocaine, for the moment at least

Gold clearly isn't a bubble. There's something innate about us humans that we like the shiny and it has fulfilled a role as currency/store of value for thousands of years.

I remember an ex-colleague of mine commenting on the longevity of the precious metals used in the "clock of the long now" - his comment went along the lines of, "well after civilisation has finished itself off, the descendant, or equivalent, of the Mongol warrior, on board his shaggy pony, will strip it to give his mate some bright trinkets to make sure he gets a good shag when he makes it back to the tent"

The human race has a distressingly large number of people who are both greedy and stupid, and who never learn from history. I blame the government.

Well, you would probably be better off blaming the government(s) we have on them surely?

IBM to expunge over 500 people in latest redundo round

Re: Optional

Just work competently - and strictly to your contact - difficult and tedious to try to sack you. Alternatively, while training up your replacement in India (or wherever), some subtle misdirection, recommendations might go a long way to making you feel better without overtly demonstrating anything but honest effort (but XXX version Y really is the one you need to get up to speed on)

UK lacks engineering and tech skills to make government's industrial strategy work – report

Re: All the jobs were sent offshore to get it for cheap....

PS if you have money you can always date a Supermodel.

You haven't seen my face... Even for a great deal of money! Maybe I could find a 'Debbie' a la Adams family to have a go?

Shady US sigint base upgrade marred by stolen photograph

Re: Pictures or it didn't.....

but shurely there is no playmobil

Cost-hurling IBM seeks more volunteers for employment bonfire

The BPFH(* pilot from hell)

SpaceX to try reusing both rocket and spacecraft for historic ISS mission

Re: Hope they include

Actually, the down might be a problem as well.

Re: ZBLAN is reckoned to be the a product that could be made at profit in space

Well having an optical link to my new amp, I am keen to upgrade and match my 'direction oriented' (I believe it is the way they pull their wires plus a small prayer - one per cable c/o a Buddhist monk - is cables). That and a little feng shui and careful marking of the CDs to balance them in the listening room and I will be the envy of the neighbourhood.

Elon Musk finally admits Tesla is building its own custom AI chips

Re: I am suddenly reminded of the film "Small Soldiers"

A kids film with a very unpleasant 'gee up message' (I seem to remember the suggested reuse was to support the Nicaraguan contras!)

Re: Nothing to worry then

Well although I agree about the specific example of Tesla (I have a Model X - silly price but a good offer when I was feeling particularly flush and I haven't regretted it, but then I look at Uber and have to question that.... and bitcoin speculation at the moment, and HP (unfortunately ,the list goes on :-()

UK border at risk of exposure post Brexit, warn MPs

Re: Maybe instead of giving smiley face badges to people that are allowed

Sop for whoever downvoted this comment (and I did not write it) would you care to list what mistakes the UK government has been associated with that a little bit of history and analysis might have ameliorated - so for example

* numerous IT systems (Reg passim amongst other)

* Iraq

* Afghanistan

* Syria

* NHS 'marketisation'

* Financial 'deregulation'

I think many of us could go on ad nauseam. Don't be lazy with a down vote - give us some examples.

Disk drive fired 'Frisbees of death' across data centre after storage admin crossed his wires

Re: Servicing a VCR was like playing with a Hellraiser puzzle box

I know... I once had to pull a banana out of one... And a peanut butter sandwich out of another...

Buttered toast with marmite on it in the case of our family VCR - but it survived for another 6 months before I finally built a compact (ish - this was 15 years ago) PVR. That did solve this particular problem - in fact it took almost a year before my better half asked out loud where the VCR slot was.....

Euro Patent Office commanded to reinstate 'Nazi judge' it attacked

Re: If the reporting is accurate the manager definitely requires dismissal

It is important to keep the pressure on.

Staff at Steria gov shared services centre offered voluntary redundo

Re: Shit Services

Bog standard offerings I believe

Nokia 8: As pure as the driven Android - it's a classy return

Re: Live Bokeh

Live and learn (although I did go and look it up just before replying (pays to check occasionally)

Capita appoints back bencher baroness as non exec director

Let me

Be the first (probably of many) to wonder how this relates to troughs installed in revolving doors (it’s a wonder that pork fed that well manages to get though regular doors).

Brit MP Dorries: I gave my staff the, um, green light to use my login

It does not appear to have presented problem for the Foreign Secretary

Damian Green: Not only my workstation – mystery pr0n all over Parliamentary PCs

Re: Much whataboutery about nothing

For most employees, it is a sackable offence though - unless I guess you work for one of the online pron vendors or CEOPS

Somewhat stupid - and unnecessary - Microsoft exchange and Google (to name but two) allow access for a proxy to handle correspondence and appointments. The need for her to frequently(WTF?) get her staff to remind her about her password(s) is particularly damning to the individual and the coaching MPs get on security (see success in guessing parliamentary email passwords in recent scandal bar two (or three or four.....)

Google to crack down on apps that snoop

Re: Standards?

Too some extent it is laziness - on both the develope and the user (not protesting/boycotting). I would be inclined to begin with the incompetence vs malicio9us intent - at least until shown otherwise. It does not take much effort from a developer to not require these.

Ex-Autonomy exec agrees to be a witness for HP fraud case

It seemed like a good idea at the time - a constant whine by HP Execs about sooooo many acquisitions, later dumped.

Lauri Love appeal: 'If he's dead, no victim's going to get anything'

Re: 'If he's dead, no victim's going to get anything'

John, is that you?

'Break up Google and Facebook if you ever want innovation again'

Re: They just store what you give them

If you are not careful (cookies et al) then yes they will

ML fails: Loyalty prediction? Not really. And bonus prediction? Oh dear

Well, one obvious explanation why they carry on using it is that no matter what the sales record, they can remove the majority of salespeople from the bonus scheme?

Activist investor rages at Mellanox for dismissing Marvell's advances

This activist has been involved with Yahoo! and helped precipitate CEO Marissa Mayer's departure.

So not all bad I think you want to say?

Digital Entrepreneur Awards help UK tech cop an eyeful of... WTF?

Re: disgraceful line of corporate misogyny

Is that you Mother?

Boss made dirt list of minions' mistakes, kept his own rampage off it

Big red buttons are sooo tempting (see HHGTG)

10 years of the Kindle and the curious incident of a dog in the day-time

Re: Mines a Sovos

Might be better off trying a computer repair shop?

Re: E-books

Shakespare

well to be fair, the man himself appeared to use many spellings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_Shakespeare%27s_name)

ICO probes universities accused of using private data to target donation campaigns

Re: Back before all the polytechs went Uni...

but they suffered from having no external validation of their teaching -

Well having spent 6 years at a Russel Group university - before moving on to academic (US) and then industrial pastures new, We had our degree material and exams assessed by another RG university - and it was serious (this is 30 odd years ago).

Tesla launches electric truck it guarantees won't break for a million miles

Re: Sport truck! 0-60 in 5 seconds

Truw - but the comment referred to driving in a city - not the open road.

Capita forced to pay out £66m to investors over Connaught fund farce

CAPITA

screw up and losses in one short article - who would have thunk it?

How do you like them Apples? Farewell sensible sized phones, forever

I like

My iPhone SE - if I need a larger screen then a tablet or a laptop do me very well.

Self-driving bus in crash just 2 hours after entering public service

Not the bus in question...

Phew.....

Carphone Warehouse given a stern talking to for 'misleading' radio ad

I complained to the ISA about both that and the 'up to' claims. They blew me off with a 'out definitions are neither) that precise (or considered)

Our oldest mammalian ancestor named after British pub landlord

Re: With profound apologies to Latin scholars (I used google translate)

I'll buy that the SPG were probably mammals - but from my memory, large aggressive ones (for 'umans anyway) - who came tooled up (with obvious lack of any convictions) obligatory NTNON link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO8EpfyCG2Y (punchline about 3 minutes in)

No venture capital please, we're British: Why a pair of storage startups went it alone

Everybody wants to be a unicorn but it's the cockroaches that survive a nuclear holocaust

Luvverley - even if the Diplodoci (?) of these markets might hope that the might manage to squash the od roach - not that easy with a big foot optimised for making sure that the animal does not sink into soft ground.

Pixel-style display woes on your shiny new X? Perfectly normal, says Apple

Re: 'image persistence' or 'burn-in'

@tiggety

Out Moris minor still has them!

Paradise Papers were not an inside job, says leaky offshore law firm

Well one needs to squirrel ones assets away, before the revolution.....

OK, we admit it. Under the hood, the iPhone X is a feat of engineering

Re: Hell froze over

He won't!

Algorithms, Henry VIII powers, dodgy 1-man-firms: Reg strokes claw over Data Protection Bill

Confusing and badly draughty I have little doubt but

The result is a complex, often confusing, piece of legislation that Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho described as being "incredibly hard to read and even harder to understand".

is hardly the best person to comment on things that are difficult to understand.

Boss put chocolate cake on aircon controller, to stop people using it

Re: It's not just cake which can annoy the real folk.

I have to confess to acquiring a very handy Casio watch (when they went bells and whistles in a very impressive manner) that seemed to have a comprehensive collection of TV remote IR codes. Yup - when you wanted to turn down the volume/turn off an irritating television it turned out to be very useful Guess it dates me a little......