Posts by NiteDragon

Windows 11 update breaks localhost, prompting mass uninstall workaround

Both! It's both right? Do I get a cookie?

End of Windows 10 support is the perfect time for the Windows 11 installer to fail

Re: Seriously?

*yet*

‘Infuriated’, ‘disappointed' ... Ex-VMware customers explain why they migrated to Nutanix

Re: How long...

Exodus again. At this point people are running from Broadcom as much as the VM product they have ruined, so buying up market to try and keep in front would be a leaky-bucket scenario.

Microsoft Build 2024 looks like it's more about AI fluff than developer stuff

Re: Am I living in a parallel reality?

I think we're supposed to get paranoid that the others are doing it (and we are not) and spaff £££ (or $$$) on it.

I don't honestly care, if they want to make me "obsolete" by using something they don't understand the output from that's just nicking code patterns and mindlessly recycling, then I'll happily watch the explosions from somewhere very far away. I get paid to think about the code, functionality, modularity, the speed it runs at AND the interactions/security. If they want none of that stuff, I'm happy to pop off and work elsewhere.

"How did we get hacked?" will be an interesting question to answer in some large companies in about 5 years.

The FCC wants to criminalize AI robocall spam

Re: So utterly convincing

There's a surprising amount of humans that can get by in life by clearly having even less than half a brain. If they have less than 1/4 they get to run the country or become executive team members.

Windows boss takes on taskbar turmoil, pledges to 'make Start menu great again'

Re: Honestly

But then Microsoft couldn't add hits to Bing (so they can pretend people use it).

Users of 123 Reg caught out by catch-all redirect cut-off

Was also got caught in this little own goal, warning email didn't arrive, I just got a mix of all my mails stopping and a lot of users (mail forwarding off to external mailboxes) suddenly getting mail not arriving. 123-reg not only killed off the catch-all, they also limited the amount of supported forwards, trimming back to the top 20 or so and converting them to 123 mailboxes.

As some of the redirects were to site-blackhole I ended up with a mess to clean up.

123-reg get some extra points for being super patronising to the trust pilot reviews from this. Always a great look.

And yes, I moved my domain - it was all such an epic mess they created that it was actually easier to move elsewhere to fix it!

Meta offers $37.5m to settle location tracking lawsuit

Facebook has done similar (contact scraping without consent on android) before - they really should get hit exponentially harder each time they get caught with a hand in the cookie jar.

Bipolar transistors made from organic materials for the first time

Re: Gatekeeping

In all honesty universities don't call themselves woke normally - in the rare times they do it's to poke fun at the right wingers who hate education/research in those times between having their life saved by vaccines, hospital treatments, drugs invariably using telecommunications networks and tiny computers to tweet about it over the world wide web.

There is always research going on in improvements to process - it might not be 'high profile' but it is there.

Tax money... Yeah, that's a can of worms, depending on your country the headline figures shown in the papers are there to make a point - once that's split 'per university' and then via departments and courses (considered of value) - not a lot of that is really going to research.

The majority of research funding tends to be private or directed by a 3rd party to solve a specific problem.

There are further political pressures in all countries - suffice it to say, the governments of the world would rarely back making the lives of hobbyists easier (Certainly not the current one in my country).

Currently, as you've identified (and as mentioned elsewhere in replies) - there are some really nasty chemicals involved in fabrication processes, frequently other things you can't get unless you're a lab with good reason and then things like rare earth materials to change the properties of materials in tiny ways. In domestic markets there'd always be the fun of someone dumping the left overs down the drain or in the normal waste - some of this stuff survives water filtration, so that'd be fun for all the family.

In short, it's not quite as simple as Universities 'gate keeping' the tech - you'll find a lot of gatekeepers, most of them for a good reason (currently).

3D printing of electronics is already a research target (primary application in space and future long distance exploration). So someday yes - it's likely chips will be printable if they are not already... Whether those chips still use materials that are restricted is somewhat partially down to the audience for it all (more research will be done if it's something everyone wants to do, that's how capitalism works) - but we can all hope we can someday, it's just not today.

Only Microsoft can give open source the gift of NTFS. Only Microsoft needs to

Re: @cjcox - What??

I suspect they need to reply at almost 1:1 for linux related comments or a little bomb goes off. It's like a really tedious IT version of the film Speed.

Junior minister says gov.UK considering facial recognition to verify age of p0rn-watchers

Re: Surely...

You've clearly been subjected to the same sort of meetings I have (where Marketing somehow manage to get a say in IT strategy)

UK culture sec hints at replacing TV licence fee, defends encryption ban proposals and her boss in Hacker House inquiry

Re: Yes please...

You can do a form online to make them aware you don't use BBC services or watch live TV (that last one's a bit cheeky, but part of the rules). I haven't had any unwanted harassment since cancelling at all.

They can already do that. Since 2016 the BBC board is chosen by the government (Thank Whittingdale for that little gem)

'No, we are not rewriting Office in JavaScript' and other Microsoft tales

Re: "showing Redmond is taking seriously the creeping advance of Apple"

Believe me, the though has occurred while doing a walk of shame (laptop open while running) because windows decided to update instead of shut down or, you know, ask if I have 20 minutes to spare.

Anyone else filled with dread at the news Microsoft will include AI and reduce the ribbons. I dislike the ribbon with a passion, but I dread Microsoft trying to guess what I'm doing and limiting the available options accordingly.

It'll be clippy all over again :(

Woo-yay, Meltdown CPU fixes are here. Now, Spectre flaws will haunt tech industry for years

I love intel's 'everyone else is a bit rubbish too' defence. I'll try that if I ever fluff up my code security to the extent that my product appears on tech news.

WikiLeaks emits CIA's Wi-Fi pwnage tool docs

Honest question; anyone who did wireless networking back in the early days even slightly surprised by this?

Break crypto to monitor jihadis in real time? Don't be ridiculous, say experts

I'm sure we'll be the first place international companies chose to store data and infrastructure with once these idiots get this sort of lunacy through.

Will it save lives? probably not - but then again, it's not really about terror is it?

Edinburgh Uni email snafu tells students they won't be graduating

"The WHERE clause on the SQL statement that chose the target cohort was clearly not calculating the credits correctly resulting in the wrong cohort being sent the automated email"

Alas in the system they use the vendor requests that you code in a vendor-specific language (called SRL; a semi-spawn of a language called uniface) which is far slower and prone to handling nulls etc in strange ways - also when I tested it, its performance was horrendous.

It makes coding for the system more painful than it needs to be, and increases the grey hair count way more than even the worst SQL I've dealt with. On the plus side as the system in question is apparently market leader - if you can deal with ignoring how badly it is coded and how clunky it is... You're pretty much assured a job in a lot of Universities...

Tribal SITS

I was suspecting they used $hits. Had some real fun times with that archaic glorified access database in the past.

Netgear 'fixes' router by adding phone-home features that record your IP and MAC address

I was stupid enough to purchase the D7000 from Netgear, so I'd already decided to consider all other brands first in the future... This however adds them to the pile of vendors that won't even be entertained for any of my networking needs (and who will be my example of bad choices to anyone I support, or who asks).

As for the 'we did this for support' argument; Netgear offers 90 days iirc... so I'm assuming they turn this feature off after 90 days? ;)

Seriously, I could grow roses in half of the excuses companies come out with.

Space upstart plans public cloud in low Earth orbit

On top of the rather valid points of the posts above... More space junk and rare minerals burning up in cycles doesn't really sound like the sanest plan ever?

Microsoft's Windows 10 ARM-twist comes closer with first demonstration

I think one O/S across devices can work - I just don't think a company that as arrogant as Microsoft can do it.

You actually have to talk to customers and listen, do iterative builds - realise privacy is actually important in some people's lives; rather than pretend to engage and then "know better" and think "we're important - they will learn how to do it our way".

Rich professionals could be replaced by AI, shrieks Gartner

Giant ants COULD take over the earth

Microsoft COULD write non-bloaty software

Gartner COULD try to be less tabloid and more factual*

Lots of things could happen... Don't suppose someone can wake me up if it does?

(*Probably a little unfair)

Don't panic, Florida Man, but a judge just said you have to give phone passcodes to the cops

Now I fancy a Pie. <sigh>

Creators Update gives Windows 10 a bit of an Edge, but some old annoyances remain

Sooo - why exactly were they poking around with the code in regedit?

Hint: I doubt it would have been driven by a sudden need to make it more friendly.

My Microsoft Office 365 woes: Constant crashes, malware macros – and settings from Hell

This entire article pretty much sums up my experience... Although, we also use the latest version of Visio (the one that makes entity relationship diagrams have so much white space only 4 or 5 tables fit on a page).

It feels like the people redesigning these applications have no idea who the actual paying audience is.

UK Home Office is creating mega database by stitching together ALL its gov records

Re: Just fucking leave already

It's unlikely to work - but it will keep friends of various politicians in new cars and big houses for a while.

AC - quality rant; can I ask where you moved to? I also feel a bit like it may be a good point to step off this deluded elitist little island.

Ten years in the clink, file-sharing monsters! (If UK govt gets its way)

I need to get out of this joke of a country. Somewhere a bit more liberal - like China.

How innocent people 'of no security interest' are mere keystrokes away in UK's spy databases

Okay - today if asked who I am; I'm going to say "I am Slag".

Should brighten up a dull Friday.