Posts by AK565

Is Little Timmy still enthralled by his Leapfrog tablet? Maybe check he hasn't sideloaded an unrestricted OS onto it

Re: kid's toy turned into a proper tablet computer

5 or 10 years ago there was a span of time when I had access to Macs almost daily. Memory's fuzzy.... While many things impressed me, I recall distinctly that any 'right click' functions were torturously complicated.

The iPhone really blows my mind. I can tell you that whoever designed all the functions related to document and photo handling never had to do either for work. It took me an inexcusably long time to figure out how to turn off picture sharing suggestions.... As in I'd unlock my phone and a random pic from my porn stash would be front and center.

Ever found yourself praying to whatever deity runs Microsoft Teams? You're not alone

Re: Teams on Linux

Zoom links almost never work. If I manually type in the meeting and access codes it works on the #irst try 99% of the time. Teams does not work at all with Firefox on Ubuntu. But Teams is fine with Chromium on Ubuntu. I just found out today the school where I'll be working a few hours daily uses Google Classroom which I'd never even heard of. Another agency was all gung ho on their proprietary version of Zoom until I asked a few basic tech quertions... I suddenly didn't need to use it any more and was told to use whatever the school uses.

Yeah, education on line is quite interesting.

With no viable alternatives, big names flock to Adobe's cloudy wares amid global pandemic

Fill & Sign?

Dell: 60% of our people won't be going back into an office regularly after COVID-19

Re: I would hate to own commercial real estate

"... the right are too stupid and selfish to care until it happens to them."

It's a little more complicated, at least in the US. There's a disturbingly large % of the population for whom an event is only real if it affects them in some way. Friends in property management guess it's 1/4 - 1/3 the population and it seems fairly evenly distributed among the population irrespective of demographics.

Re: I get I'm in a microscopically small minority, but...

Some people do work best thay way: Start Monday with a list of what must be finished by Friday 5pm and then do it where and when they please. Boss doesn't know or care....fly off to a beach if you want. Just get it done on time. Last week was brutal, physically. But I got all my work done because I spent Friday on my couch with my tablet.

Re: I would hate to own commercial real estate

At present I'm scheduled to full time WFH within two weeks. I'll save 15hrs/week in commuting time and close to US$1000/month in work related costs. Factoring in the above time savings, my new work week will be 10hrs/week longer but for 1/3 of that I'll be on standby, during which time I can literally do whatever I want as long as I can get to my laptop in under a minute.

WFH drastically decreases the wear-and-tear on my body, thereby increasing my chances of working more years and not needing Social Security until age 70. That delay will gain me nearly $1000/month more for the rest of my life. I fail to see a downside here.

Ireland unfriends Facebook: Oh Zucky Boy, the pipes, the pipes are closing…from glen to US, and through the EU-side

Frankly, I'm curious as to how so many people have the discretionary time and energy to spend on FB. Since Covid19 hit 90% of my time has been spent on keeping afloat financially. It literally took until a few hour's ago to sort that all out. I anticipate having some discretionary time in the very near future and I'll certainly not be spending it on FB.

Re: About time too

At this point I don't think I actively refuse to engage with entities that insist on FB log-in. I suspect I just ignore them without the FB log-in consciously registering as the reason.

Mozilla have come out with a FB "bucket" that supposedly markedly reduces the amount of data FB can slurp without your permission. I haven't had the chance to check it out but wonder if there's any truth to the claim.

There’s no new normal coming for PC sales, just the boring old normal of a long, slow decline

Agreed. Even with job moving entirely online, all of my 10+ yr old laptops seem to be up to the task.

Mate, it's the '90s. You don't need to be reachable every minute of every hour. Your operating system can't cope

Re: My first major upgrade

After 56k, I discovered a modem used two phone lines. One was the 'dedicated' computer line that have you 56k. The second line was the 'house' line. When the house line was not in use the modem would use that to double speed. When a call came in or someone made a call the modem would disconnect from it.

This was mid 90's. I don't recall details beyond getting a noticeable speed bump.

If you think Mozilla pushed a broken Firefox Android build, good news: It didn't. Bad news: It's working as intended

The problem with this way of thinking is that changing the label doesn't change the thing. Calling the master password 'primary'doesn't do anything. One could easily make an argument that 'primary'is just as '-ist' as the word 'Master' is.

'Whore' used to be the PC word for 'lady of the evening' Languahes change.

Re: Thought I missed something!

+10,000!!!

That's my single biggest gripe with tho iPhone. All the UI's for text, editing, doc handling, etc. seem to have been designed by people who never had to work with documents.

Re: An alternative?

"It would be a shame if Mozilla went the way of so many other developers and unilaterally decided that they know what is best for their users."

Exactly. They think they know best yet are nearly always wrong. It makes me wonder how well I'm actually being tracked, lol. Features I use disappear and those I don't are 'enhanced'. I don't bother any more. I just switch to an alternative or I drop it all together. One of the main reasons Facebook lost me was that they kept undoing all my tweaks.

Putting the d'oh! in Adobe: 'Years of photos' permanently wiped from iPhones, iPads by bad Lightroom app update

I'm on my first iProduct. I cam tell you that it was made very clear to me that unless I deliberately pick and delete a photo, every single photo is both on my phone and in iCloud so it is automatically backed up and I don't need to think on it any further. I'm not saying that's necessarily true. I'm saying that's what I was told numerous times by numerous people. I'm not much of a photographer so I really don't care, but if i were i'd make sure to save my pics in third place.

In the same vein, my laptop's keyboard just crapped out. But that's OK. I backed it up on a separate disk just a few days earlier. I needed some files from two weeks ago. No problem, right? When I tried to restore the latest restore date offered me was May 22nd.... And I do weekly backups! Ihavent had time to tackle that fiasco.... I have a list.

Shocking no one, not enough foreigners applied for H-1B visas this year so US govt ran a second lottery

Re: Pay *should* be equal...

"Some of these jobs are in places that no one wants to live in like, Nebraska or somewhere."

This is another issue on top of everthing else. It's been going on for years but has hit the media as a result of Covid. Many white collar workers in both tech and non-tech fields have no interest in living in areas where science (aka reality) is treated as a liberal conspiracy and schools teach that cave men and dinosaurs coexisted in a world that is only 6,000 years old. No, it's not happening, no matter how much money a company might offer. Full stop.

Re: 'Murica first!

Not only there. I've heard from friends and colleagues that the same is happening in other major cities. Offices currently renting 30,000 sq. ft. are renewing their leases for 10,000 as many white collar workers are doing some or all their work remotely.

Re: You'd have to be mad -- or desperate -- to come here on an H1B

And those of us of a certain age and from certain parts of the English-speaking world will recall there was a time when the phrase "mentally retarded" was the Politically Correct way to refer to a person with cognitive disabilities.

Re: You'd have to be mad -- or desperate -- to come here on an H1B

Generally speaking, getting a work visa depends on one's education/skill set/credentials vs need in given areas. If one's a widget painter and areas A,B, & C in Canada have a shortage of widget painter it's supposedly easy to get a work visa if you agree to go to one of those areas and work there for a specified time period. If one's dead set on moving to non-shortage area, it is decidedly more difficult. The website made quite clear that if one first moves to shortage area A and hates it, one is free to move to shortage area B without restriction.

Strangely, in spite of all the emphasis on this, there seemed to be no way to type in one's credentials and get a list of current shortage areas. Go figure.

I can tell you that in metro NYC that unemployment insurance WITH the recently ended $600/week bonus does NOT provide incentive to remain unemployed.

I could quibble over a few details, but your overall point is dead center correct, IMO.

Regarding US workers being 'uneducated': I do agree that an ever increasing % of people successfully holding down intellectually demanding jobs become completely flummoxed by the slightest derivation of the routine. If you take them out of their zone/world their IQ seems to drop by 20 points. No argument from me.

My point is that even if you ARE a person who can handle changes in routine and who meets your standard of 'educated', you are just as likely to be in the aforementioned 70% than those who are 'uneducated'. Being 'educated' doesn't provide nearly as much a safeguard as it used to to avoid living paycheck to paycheck.

It's a constant refrain among white-collar workers of all types in the US: How is it the numbers on my paycheck keep going up yet I have to keep cutting back to make ends meet?

Re: Oh NOSSSSSS!

Perfectly logical so I upvoted you. However many companies aren't willing to pay competitive wages to those workers who are educated and there are some. So while your point is certainly valid, the situation exists separately from the issues discussed here.

Re: Oh NOSSSSSS!

If you define "real wages" as total compensation including such things as health insurance, vacation, sick days, retirement/pension options, etc., then the answer is a resounding "NO".

Gross hourly pay may be going up, but when you factor in the above items, total compensation is going down. More and more jobs are "1099" (named for the tax form) meaning they provide zero benefits. If (like an increasing % of Americans) you hold down two or more such 'gigs' to equal one full time job your travel time between gigs is esentially unpaid work time.

If companies were willing to pay real wages for Americans we wouldn't have the present gig economy, the need for foreign workers, etc.

Virgin Galactic pals up with Rolls-Royce to work on Mach 3 Concorde-style private jet that can carry up to 19 people

I think the key phrase is "small airports". If one is in the suburbs the drive out to an uncrowded ex-urb airport as opposed to a metro can result in less door-to-door travel time and less time queing.

Heir-to-Concorde demo model to debut in October

Re: You are doing it wrong

One needn't be 6'3" to have that problem. 6'0" is quite sufficient.

Re: Can it reduce the time spent at airports

Agreed. At one ppoint I was doing a lot of NYC <-> W. Palm/Ft Lauderdale. The actual flight was the shortest and least stressfull leg of the trip.

Re: Starship?

Exactly, which is why I think smaller (~50 seat) long distance planes that can fly dirctly between sub- & ex-urban airports will eventually become more popular.

Boeing confirms it will finish building 747s in 2022, when last freighter flies off the production line

IIRC, there'd been speculation that most of the growth in air tra#fic would not be between hubs, but between smaller airports E.g. Providence to York. So the future need would be for smaller, long range craft. Per one article I saw a few months pack, Covid might spur this.

Bill Gates debunks 'coronavirus vaccine is my 5G mind control microchip implant' conspiracy theory

Re: Very good skeptoid podcast recently debunking this stuff

Royal families, aliens, and world domination: IIRC, this becam an issue when attempts at retinal recognition showed software errors; messages insisted eyes were reptilian, not human. A reporter's attempt to debunk this was apparently met by software engineers very eager to share their data. One point of which is that only individuals with royal blood caused this kind of error.

Apple said to be removing charger, headphones from upcoming iPhone 12 series

I mentioned the Audi Olympic rings to a friend once. He looked at me as one looks at a young child who's rather slow on the uptake, "No, those are 4 cockrings rings and if you'd ever watched any German gay porn you'd know that."

I'm still not sure what to make of his comment. I have sampled the genre a few times..... I found myself getting distracted by all sorts of ancillary weirdness, shall we say.

As for Audi drivers, 2 weeks after paying off my car a year early I was on a rain soaked highway one morning when this wanker couldn't decide whether to bear left or right at a split. He then chose to stop in the middle to figure things out. I was just congratulating myself on having avoided this A6 when I was rear-ended (and not in a good way) by van. Meanwhile the Audi wanker made his decision and sped off. I was not amused.

A memo from the distant future... June 2022: The boss decides working from home isn't the new normal after all

Re: "Working from home is a privilege not a right"

Exactly, and the most upwardly mobile tend to be the first out the door. And then management is mystified as to why quality and quantity of work completed drops. I'd like to say "pretends to be mystified", but all too often the puzzlement appeared genuine.

I'm going with it being a control thing.

Re: It would be so easy to pick apart so many of these points....

Points for the use of "wirehead".

Several times when I worked in a corporate environment I came in to work during severe snowstorms. The place was a ghost town. The phone hardly rang bec most those who'd be calling were home. Afterward my bosses would ask me how I got so much done. I always gave the same answer, "I wasn't interrupted." The answer usually left them befuddled.

Re: Executive double-speak

Working from home literally adds 4 hours to my day EVERY workday. 3 hour commute plus 1 hour of extra sleep as I don't have to do as much to 'get ready' in the morning. I also save about $400 per month in commuting and lunch expenses.

Re: New Normal?

You said the key word, "naked". I haven't worn anything below the waist since lockdown began, save footwear and gentleman's bits & bobs, leather or Stainless Steel. I've no desire to wear pants for a three hour round trip just to appease managers who admit they know nothing of my job.

I imagine at some point the naturist groups I belong to will resume in-person meetings. In the spirit of compromise I'll come into the office the usual T/Th those groups meet.

Re: New Normal?

Thank you. I've never been able to figure out how an office plan that maximizes distractions is supposed to improve productivity.

Re: New Normal?

I'm actually quite impressed by the "up to two dozen" part. Personally, when I'm in a group larger than 5 that sucks balls I find it rather difficult to keep track of activities, regardless of how beneficial they might be. As an observer I've noted that groups larger than 5 have a tendency to divide into smaller groups. I've formulated a few theories, but it's become clear more data is needed.

NASA scientists mull sending a spacecraft on a 13-year mission to visit Neptune's 'bizarre' moon, Triton

Re: Faster!

Those of us of a certain age were promised nuclear powered flying cars, colonies on the moon with excursions to the dark side. We were also promised vacations on Mars where we could ski down mountains of unimaginable heights. Oh, and long before anyone even thought of "The Energy Crisis" we were promised limitless electricity from nuclear power. Our ships and airplanes would also be nuclear powered. Speaking of airplanes, supersonic airliners were supposed to be phasing out about now in favor of sub-orbital hypersonic planes that would cut NYC - London from three hours to ONE.

THAT is why us folk approaching retirement age are so cranky all the time. We want the tech we were promised!

Big Tech trade association warns Uncle Sam against knee-jerk national security measures that harm industry

Nice thoughts, but.....

I'm afraid there's is a larger, overarching problem. All of this is far, far too complicated for the orange one to understand. You need to work around him. Full stop.

Trump's Make Space Great Again video pulled after former 'naut says: Nope

Make America Great Britain Again

The thought has occurred. The main 'donor states' (pay more to D.C. than they get back) might be interested. NY, NJ, Mass., Conn. are in the top 5 and the rest of New England would prob go along. Do you think the Queen would take us back? From this side of the pond it certainly looks like you guys are doing better than we are.

Re: 450 cities protesting racism

I actually grew up not far from Plymouth, Mass of pilgrim fame. ' Religious dissidents' was the phrase used. SOme were zealots and some weren't. Zealotry tended to wane among those who stayed on the East Coast and wax among those who moved west. The revolution? The teaching was that George ignored the colonists'rights as British subjects so it was his own damn fault the whole thing happened.

Speaking of monarchs.... Some people here in the north east US have been wondering..... Do you think if we asked really, really nicely the Queen would take back New England, NY, and NJ? NY, NJ, Conn., and Mass. all pay way more in taxes than we get back from DC so we can offer a sweet deal. Pretty please?

Indian app that deleted Chinese apps from Androids deleted from Play Store

Re: the common denominator in all of those disputes.

Agreed with an upvote.

I'd like to add that 'Islam' is nearly as broad a label as 'Christianity'. Just as some Christian groups regard other Christian groups as heretical, so do some groups within Islam.

Example: a few years back several imams from a rather strict variety of Islam showed up uninvited at the Polish mosque in Brooklyn, NY, US and told the Imam there he was doing things 'wrong' and tried to 'correct' the situation. The Polish imam sent them on their way quite quickly.

Yes, Poland has had Muslims since the 1400's or so. Most of them lived in the areas the Soviets took after WWII.

GSMA report: Sorry, handset makers, 5G is not going to save the smartphone market

Keep the shiny-shiny....

Are those of us who actually do shit with our phones really such a small segment of the buying public?

If I could have my way I'd want a BBerry 9900 or Nokia e70 with a large enough screen for my clients to e-sign forms with their finger. Imd like a battery to actually last a day and the phone tought enough to handle the occasional tumble onto concrete or dip into water.

As for speed, what do you need for decent video calling? Sign language is a bitch with less than 1080p 30f/s. But IIRC, even decent 3G can give that or am I mistaken?

Beyond that, I don't care. From what I read, most El Reg readers don't either. So what's wrong with these cell phone manufacturers?

Mind your language: Microsoft set to swing the axe on 27 languages in iOS Outlook

Re: I can type any language I want?

Agreed. Here's the thing. There are actually TWO Americas. The Coasts&Great Lakes and the Interior. Most well off, white, adult males in the interior have no idea that most of the white adult males in the world are nothing like them except for skin, hair, and eye color. Nearly all are non-ethnic, monolingual English speakers who are utterly convinced they are at the center, are the norm, are what's 'right'. There's no changing them. Their response to Covid19? I rest my case.

Re: You vill parle Amrecianish Da!

Adding words to the dictionary changes nothing? Good, I'm not the only one with that problem then.

Yes, American are much worse than Brits with monolingualism. More likely than not most of the people involved with writing that list had never heard of half the languages. And if the languages were actually important they would have heard of them. Yes, that's the way a distressingly large number of Americans think. Remember, we're talking about people who think the Bible was originally written in English. They also think Jesus was white and spoke English.

Huge if true... Trump explodes as he learns open source could erode China tech ban

Re: Thailand is opening up

Agreed. The problem appears to be the word "so" in your second sentence. Most Americans don't have the background knowledge of how common sickness spreads therefore it's unlikely the cause/effect relationship you're pointing out will be understood or accepted.

More basic is that many Americans can't / won't process the fact that the spread of disease is not contingent upon what humans understand or accept.

Of course this makes no sense. Yet, here we are.

US govt can talk about the end of lockdown, but Silicon Valley says 'as long as it takes' – and Twitter says 'WFH forever'

Re: It has been a strange couple of months

1 or 2 days in the office, the rest at home is my preferred compromise. While I miss the opportunity to bounce ideas off coworkers, I'm more efficient with the routine tasks home alone. My r/t commute was three hours and had almost a mile of walking so that might influence my view.

Author of infamous Google diversity manifesto drops lawsuit against web giant

Re: i knew this thread would quickly devolve into sticks and stones

"Cis" (or not) is an objective fact. But I don't think that's your point. IMO, an ongoing problem is these kinds of issues tend to attract people who are more interested in ranting and railing than in addressing any actual issue. Regarding "cis" itself.... I'd say half the time I hear it, being cis or not is completely irrelevant to the conversation. So using the word simply announces the speaker has his own agenda and doesn't give a shit about the conversation. So you're probably right to be pissed off at its usage.

Fun fact: You know that nauseating LGBTQIA++++++ ? Most people who are members of those communities have no idea what 3/4 of those letters actually mean and don't care. Oh, and before anyone says anything, I'm 'G' myself so I'll call it nauseating all I please.

I'm getting offf my soapbox now.

Re: re: evil Corp

My gay, Greek orthodox friend gets daily adverts on book face for "real Muslim brides". So there is that.

Re: re: evil Corp

Why do so few realise? A couple of things:

1. Many people are working more hours than their counterparts did 20 or 30 years ago. The discretionary time to keep up on this isn't physically there.

2. Keeping up on this requires a shitload more time & energy than it did even 10 years ago.

3. It's simply too complicated for the average person to understand.

I'm really confident I'm one of the least tech savvy subscribers here. At the same time, I know much more than the average person. Feel like I'm 2/3 of the way to the right on the Dunning-Kruger curve. I know enough to know that I'm really not that knowledgeable, yet I'm surrounded by "experts" who crowd the left end of the curve and try to tell me I "don't really understand" how google works and that I'm being ridiculous with my concerns.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Spacecraft with graphene sails powered by starlight and lasers

Re: Well... Laptop as weapon

True. I had no idea when I bought my ThinkPad x200s I was buying the laptop equivalent of the Nokia 3310.