Posts by Expat-Cat

Cops visit school of 'wrong person's child,' mix up victims and suspects in epic data fail

Re: Ccea blocks me, why?

Just a nitpick, and I know you were "quoting" a US website, but the GDPR has no requirement relating to cookies that causes this kind of behaviour. The ePrivacy Directive of 2002 holds this responsibility!

Progress towards 'Gigabit Europe' is slow, with UK also lagging

Re: France is leading with 39.94 percent

I live in eastern France (region Grand Est), where FTTP has just about 100% coverage. I live in a small village, and had it for 3 years now, but just went with 400Mb up and down, guaranteed not "up to" . Doesn't cost much more for 2Gb.

Talking to family in the UK, much cheaper for me; without a phone it's under €30 a month. And with a phone I get free calls in Europe and USA.

DoE digs up molten salt nuclear reactor tech, taps Los Alamos to lead the way back

Some of the comments (and the article!) seem to be based on some lack of knowledge on how Liquid Fluoide Thorium Reactors work. For example they don't use water coolant in the primary circuit, but probably would use it in the secondary circuit to drive steam turbines. Uses a lot less water as this can be nearly a closed circuit with recovery.

Anyway, a simple YouTube explanation https://youtu.be/nYxlpeJEKmw as a starter

Google tells Apple to 'fix text messaging' in bid to promote RCS protocol

leave SMS alone!

I wish they'd leave SMS alone. Whatsapp etc. are great, but must have a data connection to work. SMS will work when you are in low signal areas where you can't get even EDGE or 3G (they still exist). I sometimes find that SMS will work when voice won't as it keeps trying until your recipient wanders into a signal.

Also for those without decent data roaming contracts when abroad. So a great fall back. Suspect that carriers will want to keep it; how else can they send you messages to sign up to a nice expensive data roaming option?

Delivery notification could be nice if it could be added easily and non-disruptively. For example, I have developed my own protocol to cover some of this (patent in creation). I add the words "please reply or call when you get this" to the message :-)

Browsers could face two regimes in Europe as UK law set to diverge from EU

How the 2 sets of Directives and Regulations interact is a full and complex subject. My point was that when I see an "expert" making a number of statements but with a large factual error in the basic explanation I am not inclined to look at those statements with much belief.

GDPR makes only one short mention of cookies, and that is to clarify that where cookies may contain private data OR may be used in any way that allows an individual to be identified, then this is private data as covered by GDPR.

Love articles like this. Trouble is the value is immediately devalued due to a major inaccuracy. GDPR does not mandate any sort of cookie behaviour; this is covered by the ePrivacy Directive from 2002.

If this basic point is not known, how good is the rest of the information?

United, Mesa airlines order 200 electric 19-seater planes for short-hop flights

Re: 250 mile range/19 passengers

And what if you are already at the airport, landed after a md/long-range flight? And your final destination is just that bit further? Also you are through security. So , wait 30 mins and take a 30-40 minute connecting flight, or a (minimum) 4 hour drive?

Gov.UK taskforce publishes post-Brexit wish-list: 'TIGRR' pounces on GDPR, metric measures

Re: Brexit bollocks

Being picky, but why concentrate on cookie consent with regard to any discussion on GDPR?

The GDPR does not mandate much about cookies. They are covered by the ePrivacy Directive (EPD) which pre-dates GDPR by 9 years.

GDPR does include one short paragraph which clarifies that where cookies contain data that can identify an individual, this is personal data. So GDPR gave some teeth to the EPD.

Beloved pixel pusher Paint prepares to join Notepad for updates from Microsoft Store

Re: confused?

and the shift+windows flag key+s seems to work better capturing pop-up messages and drop-down lists. Using windows flag key+V gives the ability to do seerl captures than paste them where/when you want.

But must admit that familiarity means that I still use Paint for quick edits of existing images.

Hydrogen-powered train tested on Britain's railway tracks as diesel alternative

For a moving vehicle, it's mass that matters the most, as you have to accelerate the fuel mass and that costs. Hence why making cars lighter is a key fuel consumption improver.

Agreed, the storage technology and approach (compression, insulation...) will add to the weight. But on something like a train, the volume is less of an issue.

As to Fuel cell efficiency compared to ICE power plants, https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/11/f27/fcto_fuel_cells_fact_sheet.pdf

"It's light so the energy density - Joules/kg - is low, also see next point - storage cylinders are heavy."

wrong. Energy per Kg is 3 times higher than gasoline fuels. The fuel-cells are 3 times more efficient than an iCE engine, so in mass terms it's a very good energy store.

Then the storage issue. LPG is kind of scary, methane tanks no better and petrol has a nasty habit of forming dense explosive vapour clouds. Anyone want to drop their lithium batteries in water?

All energy stores have issues. Some are just more familiar than others

Adobe Illustrator's open source rival Inkscape delivers v1.0.1 - with experimental Scribus PDF export

bring back Micrografx Designer...

(before Corel ate it)

So Darned Kind of you, Facebook: SDK bug sends popular iOS apps crashing earthwards

coincidence?

Just a few weeks after Apple make it compulsory to offer Apple authentication services if you use any other third party service?

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!

"The new version of Edge is also worse than the previous one."

in what way? Been using it for a while, seems to work well with fewer issues on random web sites. Can use Edge and Chrome extensions.

Seems faster than Chrome. Still has the Immersive Reader view.

BT's Wi-Fi Disc ads banned because there's no evidence the things work

Re: "Only we guarantee Wi-Fi in every room"

A matter or wording.

"Only we guarantee Wi-Fi in every room" is not the same as "Only We have the tech for wifi in every room"

Just offer 20 quid back, and only you have a guarantee, Weasel Ads ltd.

Gather round, friends. Listen close. It's time to list the five biggest lies about 5G

I would like to get 3G first, without having to go up to the top of the house, or up the hill into the forest where I get great connectivity (the wonders of rural life, but I will soon have a 1Gb/s fibre connection, work that one out)

Anyway, about the security aspect. Not saying that the following has any technical reality, but the worry is less "Butler with an ear at the door" and more "Manchurian Candidate" (ironically appropriate?). That is, in any box of electronics, it's hard to spot any oddities, and even harder within firmware. I am sure that if you open up any 2 routers from one manufacturer, you will find some difference in components, especially over time and with replacement parts etc. So the paranoia is that all works fine until the day that the special signal is sent, and some zombie buried feature wakes up and drops your comms network into the bin.

It's coooming: Windows 10 October 2018 Update adoption slows ahead of the next release

Re: Check for updates still won't install 1809

Agree. I have a Surface Pro 4, and never got an automated offer to move to 1809. I assumed for a while that there was some hardware driver issue, but nothing listed (searching forums) by other owners that had upgraded.

So I went to the MS site and started the upgrade. Completed in less than an hour (went for a snack, was done when I got back) and only issue was my microphone was not working, though "no issues found" on scanning. Delete device and restart, all OK. The Cloud Clipboard and new screen shot features are very useful.

So why the slow roll out to the one set of devices MS should have done ASAP?

OneDrive Skype integration goes live aaand... OneDrive falls over in Europe

I live in Europe and use Onedrive., and in fact have been using it today. No issues seen.

Ho widespread was the "wobble" supposed to be?

Doomed Chinese space lab Tiangong-1 crashes into watery Pacific grave

Unsuitable Reg section

I note this is in "Emergent Technology". Seems wrong on so many levels...

Submergent Technology?

UK.gov: Psst. Belgium. Buy these Typhoon fighter jets from us, will you?

Re: The "brilliant Mini"

"he Mini and still it was a rather dreadful car, as wet and cold inside as outside, absolutely lethal in snow and sleet in the night on the road among real cars."

Really don't get this comment. In snow the mini classic is quite excellent, with good grip and feedback through the steering so you can tell what is going on. Of course deep snow can be an issue due to the small ground clearance! Screen demist in my current car leaves something to be desired, but the heating levels are great.

Unloved Microsoft Edge is much improved – but will anyone use it?

When I first moved to Win 10, tried Edge but unusable. Continued to use a mix of IE and Chrome.

However Google's recent efforts to make Chrome use memory and be generally harder to configure made me try Edge again. Now I prefer it and use it as my default, with Chrome for some sites.

IE still needed for some things though....

It could be that the usage statistics will take time to catch up as Edge creeps into wider use. A lot of big companies are only just getting round to Win 10 roll out so that may have an impact.

Microsoft kinda did OK this quarter – but whatever, Wall Street loves Satya Nadella

2017?

or did I miss something?

Sony wins case over pre-installed Windows software

Re: "without pre-installed software"

I wasn't aware that I could buy any Apple hardware without a pre-installed OS and/or ask for a refund.

Reminder: IE, Edge, Outlook etc still cough up your Windows, VPN credentials to strangers

Settings?

Default setting for IE is to turn this behaviour off for Internet zone connections, and on for Intranet zone.

May explain why those who have tried the test site did not see anything wrong.

Could still be an issue if you try on a potentially hostile network e.g. hotel, restaurant etc. if the PC decides the SMB connection is local.