Posts by Mongrel

Bratty Uber throws tantrum, threatens to cut off California unless judge does what it says in driver labor rights row

Re: Ride Sharing

Ride sharing is how they started.

I think they hang onto this description as part of their paper thin "We're not employers" defence

America's largest radio telescope blind after falling cable slashes 100-foot gash in reflector dish

Re: Aliens!!!!!

Mysterons always told you what they were going to do, no concept of operational secrecy.

You had one job... Just two lines of code, and now the customer's Inventory Master File has bitten the biscuit

Re: Adding a comment sometimes caused compile failure

So one of the few times "Well, it worked on my machine" was valid...

That's how we roll: OWC savagely undercuts Apple's $699 Mac Pro wheels with bargain $199 alternative

Re: And yet...

From one of the more sensible Mac enthusiasts, Snazzy Labs. He collaborated with a viewer and made available a set of 3d printed adaptors for the Mac Pro feet so you can use whichever castor suits you for a lot less.

Doesn't look as good but considerably less outlay

https://youtu.be/t4HPq-tEYWY?t=54

Trump administration labels WeChat, TikTok ‘threats’ to national security, bans transactions with both

Re: The DeathStar analogy is apt...

Although Porkins does do a nice summation of the current administration

"Stay on target... Stay on Target....***explosions***"

USA decides to cleanse local networks of anything Chinese under new five-point national data security plan

"Tencent could be interesting, they have so many fingers in gaming companies form fully owning Riot Games owner of League of Legends to a small share of Epic Games who make Fortnite, to partly owning the Clash of Clans company, they also own 1.6% of Warner Music and 10% of Spotify."

Don't forget Discord

Spending watchdog doubts UK is capable of managing Brexit and coronavirus info campaigns at the same time

Re: It's obvious....

Actually yes. Salad is already chlorinated in the EU. The European Food Safety Authority deems it safe. It is cheaper than the expensive chicken we are FORCED to buy from the EU. Allowing food prices to fall due to buying at correct market price is not a bad thing. It makes the country richer.

Because salad and chicken are so alike...

Dunking chicken in a bleach bath is not a replacement for a clean and hygienic slaughtering process as a bleach bath can hide an unhygienic process. (See https://www.soilassociation.org/our-campaigns/top-10-risks-from-a-uk-us-trade-deal/what-is-chlorinated-chicken/)

I'm all for cheaper food but not if the trade-off is an increased risk of food poisoning.

Re: It's obvious....

Getting out of CAP but then we have to accept Chloronation Chicken?

Door's already opened wide on that one.

https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2020/05/13/Agriculture-Bill-MPs-don-t-back-import-standards-call

Trump issues toothless exec order to show donors, fans he's doing something about those Twitter twerps

Re: Thoughts and prayers

Unless this the result of younger operatives in the party, someone didn't think this through. Or did I read your post wrong?

I think the missing word in the rather good summation is 'poor'.

You're only a real person to the GOP if you're a rich white guy

Surprise! That £339 world's first 'anti-5G' protection device is just a £5 USB drive with a nice sticker on it

Re: What 5G ?

This led me to check a 5G availability map or the UK and I don't see any 5G in the Glastonbury area.

I always find it funny how badly they misapply their "research".

Made-up murder claims, threats to kill Twitter, rants about NSA spying – anything but mention 100,000 US virus deaths, right, Mr President?

Re: If the author of this PoC

"Twitter haven't suppressed what Trump has been able to say, they've merely added a flag to point out that what he's spouting may not be grounded in any kind of fact at all."

And even if they did suppress his speech, it's a win for the Free Market and Capitalism ! Why would you want to add more regulations?

Rogue ADT tech spied on hundreds of customers in their homes via CCTV – including me, says teen girl

"From the article, it mentioned they were going to remove the unauthorised email address via a software update, that seems to indicate that access may still be possible by other means."

They were going to remove the ability to access the service mode via an update. It was this that allowed the perv to enter his e-mail in the field.

Mirror mirror on the wall, why will my mouse not work at all?

Re: Right click

"While at uni I worked for Time computers, please feel free to flame me for my murky past"

Not at all... All the while Time existed I could claim I was working at the second-worst PC manufacturer

Driveway karaoke singer who wanted to lift lockdown spirits cops council noise complaint

Re: Damn!

Or the 23 minute condensed version from the, increasingly inaccurately named, Reduced Shakespeare Company;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=A-v3sJgS2cI&feature=emb_logo

You can get a mechanical keyboard for £45. But should you? We pulled an Aukey KM-G6 out of the bargain bin

Re: "are these mechanical keyboards any good for actual work"

"The response from the keys is entirely different, although it's hard to quantify exactly how"

It's mostly the precision of the switches.

You know where in the stroke it actuates and when it bottoms out, both of these are repeatable & predictable, cheaper keyboards can be more variable (like the godawful Dell cheapies at the office they feel like they have gummie bears as switches). Also build quality makes a big difference, if the keyboard flexes when you press on it that'll change the pressure needed to actuate.

Re: A decent keyboard is a decent investment

Yes, a confounding factor is people are unwilling to spend the cash buy an expensive keyboard that has unproven benefits to them.

If you don't know how much better an experience it can be (IMO), it's a hard sell for a £100 plus accessory. That's why I like the cheaper switches, £30-£40 is easier to justify and at that price I'd tell a friend that I'd be willing to buy it off them if they don't like it after a few weeks (A spare keyboard is always handy).

I got myself one of the Aukey KM-G9 for when I had to lug the laptop to the office and agree with the review, they keys are mostly consistent and sound louder than Cherry Blues I've used but that could also have been down to metal face & back plates used - al in all impressive for the price

COBOL-coding volunteers sought as slammed mainframes slow New Jersey's coronavirus response

Re: Despair

"Wires 'wear out'?"

A standard Lucas feature IIRC

Minister slams 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories as 'dangerous nonsense' after phone towers torched in UK

Personally...

I'm convinced all this 5G conspiracy nonsense will disappear once the new, 5G capable, iPhone is released

BOFH: Will the last one out switch off the printer?

"Right, time to switch the deep fryer on and break out the Fringe box set!"

A vastly underrated series - well done :)

Infosys fires employee who Facebooked 'let's hold hands and share coronavirus'

Re: Ah, that old chestnut.

The 1st amendment protects US citizens freedom of speech from the US government.

A private company, driven by capitalism, has every right to make whatever decision they want, as long as it doesn't breach Federal rules. If they think having a gormless Edgelord associated with them who's posting shite on a public forum and they think it'll affect the public's perception of them, and therefore the bottom line, then they're allowed to get rid of him.

Re: Background

....

FREEDUM! shurely?

Facebook does the right thing for once: Joins Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube to clean out dodgy COVID-19 info

Re: Alex Jones selling anti coronavirus toothpaste

Saw that, of course now it'll be "The cure they don't want you to know about!!", feeding into his (and his followers) paranoia about the government

Re: So now they've taken the first step

Oh and, side remark, I've got the feeling that there will be no outcry from the rabid defenders of Free Speech in this case. How curious.

Sadly I wouldn't count on that. The pushers of anti-vaxx and general quackery have been using "Medical Freedom"to push their useless quackery for a while and there's a large overlap with anti-government conspiracy theorists.

For a relevant example see Alex Jones selling anti coronavirus toothpaste...

Post Office burned £100m in UK taxpayer cash on Horizon IT scandal legal fees, MPs told

Re: BS

I agree with the PO stuff, but what is your problem with VW ?

From what I understand the cars passed the test that was required at the time !!!

They passed because they had a 'super seekrit' mode that was only active for the tests and managed the engine in an unrealistic fashion to best optimise their test results.

A 'normal' car running the same test wouldn't pass.

Hacker swipes customer list from controversial face-recog-for-Feds Clearview. Its reaction? 'A part of life'

Re: Just desserts

The problem is that they're not the victims, it's the people who's data they left lying around to be stolen.

Come on baby light me on fire: McDonald's to sell 'Quarter Pounder' scented candles

Re: "Please let it be a joke"

"I'm convinced that there are many people who would gladly light up one of those candles purely for fun, out of sheer curiosity (does it really make it smell like a Mc D hamburger) and, for some, for simple convenience (it's a candle)."

You forgot the 'ironicly' humorous muppets

Voatz of no confidence: MIT boffins eviscerate US election app, claim fiends could exploit flaws to derail democracy

Re: Possible? Yes. Probable? No.

"It is possible, theoretically, to make a secure app."

And that will still rely on the end users keeping their phone secure, not just anti-malware, but physically secure, with a proper unlock passcode\pattern.

Tens of millions of biz Dell PCs smacked by privilege-escalation bug in bundled troubleshooting tool

Re: Remind me again:

I'd also presume that having and using the supplied bloatware is part of the support contract or warranty support. I mean slapping an offshore call centre in front of a flow chart who's first question is "What does the software say?" saves on their budget.

**Just cynical guesses on my part, no idea what actually happens here**

Built to last: Time to dispose of the disposable, unrepairable brick

Re: Reduce, re-used, recycle

I don't do the gaming thing myself - but how much of the upgrade cycle is driven by faster and more enthusiastic video updates?

It depends, it's more about what you're willing to settle for.

Most games that broadcast how shiny they are, normally, built for consoles then ported to PCs so will fly on moderate systems. Many are also built on gaming engines that are built to scale pretty well on whatever hardware you're willing to throw them on so you can normally get them to run, 'fine' (barring self-imposed shenanigans or crappy ports).

The advantage of modern components is it's low power usage compared to even five years ago, these past few generations have been really good for efficiency. Here's a Low Power PC build that games reasonably well and has a peak power draw of 106W - 108W

Things I learned from Y2K (pt 87): How to swap a mainframe for Microsoft Access

I think its just habit, blame MS

...as opposed to whatever combination of budget restraints, bad management, anemic dev budgets or whatever else caused someone to make *their* job easier with a spreadsheet & VB. Then saw that become a pondering monolith, barely strung together with hasty kludges and hand coddled at the end of the month to run the business critical task that the company depends on.

Cover for 'cyber' attacks is risky, complex and people don't trust us, moan insurers

Re: The real problem is insurance companies are lazy

"The correct business model is for insurance companies themselves to provide constant security auditing services (and solutions) to their clients."

How do you then counter the money grubbing side of insurance where they'd force you to upgrade your solutions package to pass the audits? I'm not a "free market fixes everything" person and have no doubt the top bods would gladly sacrifice long term stability for short term profits and rapacious bonuses

The $4.3bn trial of the century is over! Now we wait for judgment

Re: Can't believe

"Company 'A' blames former *owners* of Company 'B', not Company 'C' who were employed by Company 'A' to check value of Company 'B' "

Not forgetting that Company 'A' jumped the gun on buying Company 'B' by not waiting for Company 'C' to actually finish their job and hand in their report

Guilty as charged: Apple confesses some Smart Battery Cases are having 'issues', offers replacements

Re: Hey Apple, there's another way!

"I guess Apple values the 2.5mm of depth and 45 grams of weight less than the Moto over the battery life."

Anecdotally - Linus (from Linus Tech Tips) was talking to a Corning rep when Gorilla Glass 6 was released who reckoned that if they'd kept everything else equal teh screens would be nigh indestructible. Unfortunately every time they improved the strength of the stuff Apple would shave it thinner, compromising it's strength, to fit with the Apple aesthetic.

Love T-shirts, but can't be bothered to wash them? We've seen just the thing!

Title space for rent...

I'm definitely on the side of "Just because we can doesn't mean we should". FFS, how hard is it to grab a shower and a fresh change of clothes on a regular basis?

I'm also wondering how many people will buy this, undoubtedly expensive, t-shirt because it's feckin' expensive then throw it in the wash on the same basis as their normal t-shirts?

EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield V, Penguinistas respond by demanding crippling boycott

Re: Boycott EA?

I've not brought any new copies of EA games since they killed Westwood & Maxis *shakes fist*

I purchased some second hand games of theirs but stopped that when they started insisting on using their Origin client\store, especially as the first iteration had a clause in the EULA that said "By installing this software you're giving us permission to rummage around every hard drive in your system and send a report back to EA" (paraphrased and removed since then)

The store had a multitude of other problems and I've not gone back since, especially after the loot-box kerfuffle and continuing general micropayments\Day one DLC options in full price games.

Smart speaker maker Sonos takes heat for deliberately bricking older kit with 'Trade Up' plan

And I've never seen them at a competitive price in a physical store so I only buy them online. Amazon also offers their "Frustration Free" packaging on many branded items like this (plain cardboard sleeves)

This isn't Boeing very well... Faulty timer knackers Starliner cargo capsule on its way to International Space Station

I think, as an armchair engineer, that having a clock to compare your complex thingamajig to wouldn't have offered as many chances for Murphy to lend a hand

Tracking President Trump with cellphone location data, Greta-Thunberg-themed malware, SharePoint patch, and more

Re: Mac's don't get malware?

"Don't think I've heard that one before, it's usually 'Mac's don't get viruses'.

Really? I've seen the 'Get a Mac' advice frequently when normal users moan about all this malware they seem to be infected with, many of them don't care to learn the difference between malware & virus.

They just want a machine they can carry on using as they are now without fear of getting infected by <whatever>

Bad news: KeyWe Smart Lock is easily bypassed and can't be fixed

Re: Lots of bog-standard locks are easy to bypass.

I'd add this one as well, it's not just picking that makes a door insecure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnmcRTnTNC8

Smart locks just add another point of failure to a door.

(To be fair to locks the LPL is very good, he did a series where he picked locks from Bosnian Bill's 'Naughty Bucket', locks that BB couldn't open - and BB is good)

Pentagon's $10bn JEDI decision 'risky for the country and democracy,' says AWS CEO Jassy

Re: A Close-Run Thing

And given the very public nature of hostilities by the POTUS towards Bezo, and the cramming of key positions with sycophantic lackeys...

It's pretty easy to argue that the AWS bid wasn't given fair consideration according to the (presumed) rules that are on the Pentagon books. That's what they're suing for, they think they missed out on a lucrative contract because the Pentagon defined rules were broken.

What a pair of Massholes! New England duo cuffed over SIM-swapping cryptocoin charges

Re: This easy?

My UK provider initiates every conversation with "We've just texted a code to the phone, what is it?"

Not sure how that'd work if I had lost the phone but it's something...

I've had it with these motherflipping eggs on this motherflipping train

Re: Huh,

"OK but what do you have to do to an egg to make it genuinely stinky, rather than just an egg?"

Age of the egg and how long it was cooked for can make it more pungent.

And sometimes people are either sensitive to certain smells or just more aware of odours in the environment

Cringe as you read Horrible Histories: UK Banking Sector, sigh as MPs finger cloudy Big 3 as future risk

Re: Not got much hope

'Thing is not long ago the UK banking industry did it right, it had a standardised hardware card reader capable of generating OTPs from an applet running on the card + PIN.'

I still use mine, despite the repeated "We listened to our customers and have made it easier to log into your account!", and they will still send you a replacement when asked.

Windows 10 update slips past Aussie border force and borks access to its Integrated Cargo System

Re: @a_yank_lurker - W10 borks...

"How about the incompetent/lazy devs who coded specifically and deliberately for one single browser ?"

There's a reasonable chance that it feeds back to the bosses again; why pay for competent devs when you can off-shore it for a fraction of the price and downsize the QA team, someone has to make sure the Directors get bonuses.

Telstra chairman: If those darn kids can earn $5m playing Fortnite, why can't execs?

Re: Fortnite...?

Well, new was a bit of a stretch. It was always Dust

IT workers: Speaking truth to douchebags since 1977

They'd have been a step up

When I was working a the second worst PC manufacturer; some tech with a grudge add some rather salty comments about the Director to the boot splash screen. It went unnoticed for ages because you could only see it if the brightness was cranked to the maximum.

BOFH: We must... have... beer! Only... cure... for... electromagnetic fields

I do recall sniggering at people using headsets while declaring how bad the radiation is then dumping the phone on their lap to mutate their meat & veg.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise, politicians will philander... And US voting machines will be physically insecure

Re: Paper ballots, sealed voting containers and many scrutineers

Primarily scale.

You may be able to effect a location and skew the results but the more locations you alter the more chance of something going wrong. Compromised electronic voting systems can alter far more votes for far less risk and have a far wider reach

Malwarebytes back to square one as appeals court rules blocking rival antivirus maker isn't on

How do you determine that the user deliberately installed it?

Agreed

People installed search toolbars & Bonzi buddy back in the day, and still would IMO.

Things get tacked on to the install (if you're not paying attention) of 'free' software, a lot of which is harmful.

How is the software meant to differentiate between "Totaly meant to do that", "But it gives me freebies" and "I snuck in the back door"?