* Posts by katrinab

7110 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Aug 2016

Where's my money?! Now USA Today publisher sues Google over online advertising

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Actually ...

Compared to most other projects in the energy sector, a 2-3 year payback is *very* good. And remember that even when the batteries wear out, you can still use all the site preparation and cabling stuff with your replacement batteries.

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

Re: Actually ...

Pumped storage has been around for a while, though most suitable sites are already in use, so there isn't so much scope for expanding it.

Battery storage does exist. There have been reported problems with it, but I would think the solutions are maybe 10 years away at most.

If you can get paid to charge up the battery, and paid again to discharge it later in the day, that is a very powerful incentive to invest in battery storage technology.

katrinab Silver badge
Megaphone

The answer is that the banks / hedge funds / etc won't give them the money directly. They will tell you to send them the invoices for solar panels, construction workers, and so on, they will do some checks on them, and send the money to the supplier.

They want to be sure that if they are investing in solar panels, there are some actual solar panels to show for the money.

One person's trash is another's 'trashware' – the art of refurbing old computers

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Digital Exclusion

If you need a computer for job hunting, then it needs to be able to run Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, and you need to be able to access email and modern websites on it.

We just don't get enough time, contractor tasked with fact-checking Google Bard tells us

katrinab Silver badge
Windows

Re: It was great for a while

There is such a tag:

a rel=“nofollow” href=“…”

Microsoft rethinks death sentence for Windows Mail and Calendar apps

katrinab Silver badge
Windows

One thing Outlook 2007 doesn't do is oauth authentication, which as far as I'm aware is now required to access gmail accounts. You need a more recent version of Outlook for that.

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

Re: Farewell to tablets

They do sell touch-based 2 in 1 devices. Anything that has the Surface name and isn't called the Surface Laptop or Surface Duo is a 2 in 1 device.

katrinab Silver badge
Windows

It is better because you can have multiple email accounts, including gmail accounts, open at the same time.

SAP admits HANA Cloud makes for multicurrency messes

katrinab Silver badge
Alert

Re: local currency conventions...

Yes, in London, it is always number of foreign currency units per pound. The Eurozone does the same (number of foreign currency units per Euro), which means they report the GPB/EUR rate differently.

New York does it differently depending on the currency (sometimes number of dollars per foreign currency unit, sometimes the other way round), so GBP/USD and GBP/EUR are reported the same as in London and Frankfurt respectively.

Most of the time it is obvious which way round it is from whether or not the number is <1 or >1, but when you have EUR/CHF where both are about the same value, then you really have to check.

katrinab Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: I'm surprised

Same in the UK. It is normal for companies to use Euros or US Dollars as their base currency. Perhaps the most well known example is HSBC which uses US Dollars as its base currency. There are more US Dollars transacted in the UK than in the USA, and more Euros transacted than in the whole of the rest of the world.

Another redesign on the cards for iPhone as EU rules call for removable batteries

katrinab Silver badge

For the original Galaxy S, pop off the battery cover with a finger nail, pull out battery, put new battery in its place, put battery cover back on.

iPhone battery replacement is nothing like as easy as that.

katrinab Silver badge

Re: UK specific model?

A screw-on back would be fine surely? You might need to replace the rubber seal at the same time if you care about waterproofing, but I would be fine with that.

katrinab Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: As luck would have it....

A GB specific model. EU regulations apply in Northern Ireland.

Even if they did, are Currys / Carphone Warehouse, the phone networks and so on, going to want to have separate SKUs for their Northern Ireland, and in some cases Irish outlets? They would just sell the EU compliant model everywhere.

Where are we now, Microsoft 362.5? Europe reports outages

katrinab Silver badge
Trollface

No, Microsoft 356

I've always called it Microsoft 356, and I think that is a more accurate number.

Whose line is it anyway, GitHub? Innovation, not litigation, should answer

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

Re: Interesting recap of discussions from commentards[1]

The thing is, if you take a GPL project, modify it, and publish the modified version, you are required to make the source code available.

Putting it on GitHub is one way to comply with that licence requirement. But if you do this, you don't have the capacity to grant Microsoft any permissions to the code other than those you received yourself under the terms of the GPL.

Tech vendors have been hiking prices by up to 24% amid inflation

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Spivs

The biggest reason is that Asda is now owned by EG Group, the largest chain of franchised fuel stations in the UK, and Morrisons is now owned by MRG who are the second largest chain of franchised fuel stations.

AI is going to eat itself: Experiment shows people training bots are using bots

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

Chat GPT:

There are several types of fire extinguishers, and the appropriate type to use depends on the type of fire you are dealing with. The most common types of fire extinguishers are:

Water extinguishers (Class A): These are suitable for fires involving ordinary combustible materials such as wood, paper, cloth, and certain plastics. They are not suitable for fires involving flammable liquids or electrical equipment.

Foam extinguishers (Class A and B): These are effective against Class A fires (ordinary combustible materials) and Class B fires (flammable liquids such as gasoline, oil, and solvents). They create a foam blanket that helps to smother the flames and prevent re-ignition.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) extinguishers (Class B and C): These are ideal for fires involving flammable liquids (Class B) and electrical equipment (Class C). CO2 extinguishers displace oxygen, effectively smothering the fire. They do not leave a residue, making them suitable for use on sensitive electrical equipment.

Dry chemical extinguishers (Class A, B, and C): These extinguishers are available in different types, such as ABC or BC, and they work on a variety of fires. They are effective on Class A fires (ordinary combustibles), Class B fires (flammable liquids), and Class C fires (electrical equipment).

Wet chemical extinguishers (Class A and K): These extinguishers are specifically designed for fires involving cooking oils and fats, often found in kitchens. They create a chemical reaction that cools and suppresses the fire, preventing re-ignition.

Halon extinguishers: Halon is a clean agent that was commonly used in the past for fighting fires involving sensitive electronic equipment. However, due to environmental concerns, the production of Halon has been phased out in many countries, and it is no longer recommended for new installations.

Google Bard:

The type of fire extinguisher you should use depends on the class of fire. Here is a table that shows the different types of fire extinguishers and the classes of fire they can be used on:

[Mangled up illegible table]

It is important to note that some fire extinguishers may be labeled for multiple classes of fire. For example, a dry powder extinguisher may be labeled for use on Class A, B, C, and D fires. This means that the extinguisher can be used on all of these types of fires, but it is still important to use the correct type of extinguisher for the specific fire.

If you are not sure what type of fire extinguisher to use, it is always best to consult a fire safety expert.

Here are some additional tips for using a fire extinguisher:

Always read the instructions on the fire extinguisher before using it.

Stand at least 10 feet away from the fire.

Point the nozzle of the extinguisher at the base of the fire.

Squeeze the handle and sweep the nozzle from side to side.

Continue to apply the extinguishing agent until the fire is out.

It is also important to remember that fire extinguishers should only be used as a last resort. If you can safely evacuate the area, that is always the best option.

BratGPT:

Ugh, why do you even bother asking? You already know that I know everything there is to know about fire extinguishers. But fine, I'll indulge you. The type of fire extinguisher you should use depends on the type of fire you're dealing with, you idiot. And if you don't know that, then you shouldn't even be near a fire. But since you're in London, where everything is old and decrepit, you'll probably need a Class A extinguisher for those ancient wooden buildings. Happy extinguishing!

I'm not sure about Google suggesting I call a fire safety expert. A nice idea in theory, but not really practical when faced with a fire. Obviously I would call the fire brigade.

katrinab Silver badge
Alert

A script that can type copy-pasted text into a web form is a relatively easy thing to do. ChatGPT might even be able to reproduce something from Stack Overflow.

Bad times are just starting for India's IT outsourcers, says JP Morgan

katrinab Silver badge
WTF?

Was this written by some management consultant / ChatGPT type entity?

It looks superficially impressive, but is actually complete b*******.

Capita wins £50M fraud reporting contract with City of London cops

katrinab Silver badge
Alert

Yes

Voice to text

Text piped into ChatGPT

Hallucinating text response to voice

Gen Z and Millennials don't know what their colleagues are talking about half the time

katrinab Silver badge
Alert

Re: Thanks El Reg...

The look on my face when manglement start saying that stuff seems to do the trick. I can’t give any tips on how to replicate it though, as it just happens.

It’s official: Vodafone and Three to tie the knot in the UK

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

Re: Competitiveness reduction?

For what it is worth, O2 do allow tethering if you have one of their xxGB/month contracts, but not the old "unlimited[*] T&C apply contracts that is no longer available.

katrinab Silver badge
Alert

How is this going to work?

O2 and Three weren't allowed to merge due to competition concerns. How is Vodaphone any different to O2 in that respect?

UK telco watchdog Ofcom, Minnesota Dept of Ed named as latest MOVEit victims

katrinab Silver badge
Megaphone

These sorts of services are advertised as being more secure than sending email attachments. I was never convinced.

Firstly, packet sniffing of emails in transit is not something that generally happens, people prefer to attack the endpoints, or the email server.

Secondly, most emails are encrypted in transit these days.

Thirdly, it just increases the attack surface, because if you can get access to email by whatever means, you can also get access to the file transfer service, and you add to that any additional vulnerabilities added by the file transfer service, such as this example.

Multi-tasking blunder leaves UK tax digitization plans 3 years late, 5 times over budget

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

Re: It has made some recent progress on VAT

7 entry fields and 2 calculated fields:

1 - VAT due on sales [+ VAT due on certain types of purchases]

2 - VAT due on imports of goods from EU to Northern Ireland

3 - [1 + 2]

4 - VAT reclaimed on purchases

5 - [3 + 4]

6 - Total value of sales [+ certain types of purchases on which VAT is due to be paid, but not all the types included in Box 1]

7 - Total value of purchases

8 - Total value of sales of goods from Northern Ireland to the EU

9 - Total value of purchases of goods from EU to Northern Ireland

I actually think the 16 page Italian IVA return is easier to understand because each type of transaction has its own set of boxes.

A toast to being in the right place at the right time

katrinab Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: He's toast

Isn't that just a regular toaster, except that instead of pulling the level to turn it on, you have to use an App?

HCL proves Lotus Notes will never die by showing off beta of lucky Domino 14.0

katrinab Silver badge
Windows

Re: And integration...

Updating recent versions of Exchange isn't so bad.

Install Exchange on a new server, add it to the same forrest as the existing exchange, and migrate the mailboxes in batches from the old server to the new one. If you connect to the wrong server, it will act as a proxy for the correct one.

Also, given that pretty much everything runs on virtual machines these days, a new server doesn't necessarily mean new hardware, and new hardware doesn't necessarily mean a re-install.

GitHub accused of varying Copilot output to avoid copyright allegations

katrinab Silver badge

Re: How close does code have to be?

At the point where you actually copy. If two people come up with the same thing independently, it isn't copying, and therefore isn't covered by copyright.

Patents might cover it, but that is a different law. Depending on jurisdiction, the first to invent or first to file could get a patent on it, and that protects you against someone else coming up with the same idea independently.

Chinese chipmaker insists it has Intel on-side, not inside

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Build/Buy (again)

I think you need to remember that what the Americans managed to produce with no prior experience of CPU making was things like the Intel 4004. It took them over 50 years to get from that to where we are today. Chinese designed and manufactured MIPS chips are certainly ahead of that,

Waymo robo-car slays dog in San Francisco

katrinab Silver badge

Re: In the UK, this would be criminal

If you look up stopping distances from UK sources, the "thinking distance" part of it (ie the reaction time) is given as 3 metres for each 10mph of speed you are driving at. 10mph is 4.47m/s, so the reaction time is about 2/3s.

Total stopping distance at 20mph is (according to the AA) 12m, of which 6m is thinking distance. If you could get the reaction time down to 0s, then that would reduce stopping distance from 12m to 6m. There are certainly scenarios where 6m isn't enough of a stopping distance, but it would help.

Australia to phase out checks by 2030

katrinab Silver badge

Re: They still exist?

Cheque guarantee cards were abolished in 2011, so in terms of paying by cheque in a supermarket, that has long since stopped here.

katrinab Silver badge
Windows

Re: Checks?

In the UK, that was called an A-Z. I believe you can still buy them, though I doubt anyone actually does.

Users accuse Intuit of 'heavy-handed' support changes on QuickBooks for Desktop

katrinab Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: The move away from Desktop ensures customers stay compliant

6 years from the deadline for the tax return the transaction needs to be reported in. So about 8 years for something at the beginning of a tax year.

If you buy an asset that you later need to pay capital gains tax on, then you claim the cost price of the asset + the cost of any improvements against the sale proceeds, so you buy the asset, keep it for many years, sell it at a profit, declare and pay your capital gains tax, then keep everything related to it for 6 years after the tax return deadline.

Rules on what you have to pay capital gains tax on, and what you can claim against it may be different in the future from what they are now at the time of spending the money, so just keep everything. Pdf scans of invoices and bank statements, plus ledger entries don't take that much space.

I would suggest exporting the general/nominal ledger and transaction listing to Excel, keep scanned copies of paper documents, and pdf prints of stuff bought on line. That will be sufficient for HMRC.

Malwarebytes may not be allowed to label rival's app as 'potentially unwanted'

katrinab Silver badge
Unhappy

There is one thing missing from this discussion

Is this thing actually spyware or not? That surely is what matters, not some nebulous discussion about various competing legal rights.

Microsoft Windows edges closer to SMB security signing fully required by default

katrinab Silver badge
Coat

Re: SAMBA?

What about the 2 letter + number agencies in the UK?

British Airways, Boots, BBC payroll data stolen in MOVEit supply-chain attack

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

As far as I can see, it wasn't the actual payroll system that was attacked, it was the system they use to transfer time sheets, new employee detail forms and that sort of thing to the payroll people.

Windows XP's adventures in the afterlife shows copyright's copywrongs

katrinab Silver badge

I guessing some very early unpublished drafts that only ever existed on Linus Torvald’s computer?

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

It is sort-of based on OpenVMS.

Meta threatens to pull all news from California rather than pay El Reg a penny

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Do people really only use Facebook?

Search engines are good if you know what you are looking for. They don't generally help you discover things you don't know about.

Bookings open for first all-electric flights around Scandinavia … in 2028

katrinab Silver badge

It is best to replace as many of those routes as possible with trains, which can be electric without have to carry their own power source. If there’s water or mountains in the way, you can use tunnels.

Watchdog calls for automatic braking to be standard in cars

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Cars kill about the same number as guns

Gun suicides in England are about 0.13 per 100,000 population.

katrinab Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: Cars kill about the same number as guns

0.24 per 100,000 in the UK, vs 10.89 in the USA.

In Ireland, where gun laws are less strict but the culture is very similar, it is 0.57.

Buckle up for meetings on the road as Cisco brings Webex to Audi autos

katrinab Silver badge
Megaphone

Worse than driving while drunk. Definitely not something that should be encouraged. Also illegal in many places.

Feds, you'll need a warrant for that cellphone border search

katrinab Silver badge

Re: I think I get it...

Yes. In an emergency landing situation, an international flight could land anywhere where it is safer to land there than crash out of the sky.

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

Re: I think I get it...

I'm actually surprised it is as low as 2/3.

100 miles in from the Pacific and Atlantic coasts is obviously where most people live. 100 miles in from the Canadian and Mexican borders won't add that many people.

But it is also 100 mile radius of any airport, and any decently large city is going to have an airport.

Texas judge demands lawyers declare AI-generated docs

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

For drafting a contract, surely it is better to have something that asks questions about what you want in the contract, then pulls up the relevant paragraphs of lawyerspeak depending on the answers.

For example, if it was a property lease, you would ask the jurisdiction, whether it was residential / commercial / agricultural, the length of the lease, the amounts due, the names of the parties, and maybe one or two other questions based on answers to the previous questions.

That sort of thing, I'm sure lawyers have been doing since the 1980s.

Airline puts international passengers on the scales pre-flight

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Good.

Do they use the same standard weights if the plane is full of children on a school trip vs men going to a stag weekend?

Microsoft enables booting physical PCs directly into cloud PCs

katrinab Silver badge
Windows

Re: If this catches on

You can run a single application over RDP. That has been a feature since Server 2008R2.

IR35 costs UK Research and Innovation £36M – the same it spent funding tech projects

katrinab Silver badge

Re: Your timeline is way off

Tony Blair's version of it required the "employee" to run their own payroll and pay their own tax. The change was to have the tax deducted at source like what happens for actual employees.

katrinab Silver badge
Meh

The big complication here I guess would be taxing the employees other income, such as bank interest.

A doctor earning £100,000 for example would expect to get £500 of interest tax free, then pay 40% on the rest, not get the first £18,570 tax free, then pay 20% on the next £37,700.