* Posts by Mr Han

60 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Dec 2016

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Liz Warren: I'll smash up Amazon, Google, and Facebook – if you elect me to the White House

Mr Han

Less useful?

said that Warren's ideas would "increase prices for consumers, make search and maps less useful, and raise costs to small businesses that advertise online."

Why would more competition increase prices and make maps less useful? More competition would provide the likes of Here maps or OSMand greater opportunites to improve their services.

I stopped using most google services years ago. Google searches have become useless, biased and with far fewer pages of results.

Hipster whines at tech mag for using his pic to imply hipsters look the same, discovers pic was of an entirely different hipster

Mr Han

Re: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same

We must be neighbours.

Mr Han

Re: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same

and the second rule of hipsters is that hipsters don't follow rules.

Unless you want your wine bar to look like a brothel, purple curtains are a no-no apparently

Mr Han

Disgusted or disappointed

It sounds like disappointment to me. I see an obvious need for a brothel with net curtains, perhaps rigged up to twitch every few minutes so as to blend in with the locals.

Seriously though, I don't understand why the offended can't just walk on pasty bar.

Good news! Only half of Internet of Crap apps fumble encryption

Mr Han

Re: That's because security isn't their primary concern...

Upvote for the use of Surveillance Capitalism.

I'm hoping my friends will pay attention when I point them in the direction of this book:

https://profilebooks.com/surveillance

rather than screaming at them 'YOU'RE DOOMED, ALL DOOMED!'

Amid polar vortex... Honeywell gets frosty reception after remote smart thermostat tech freezes up for a week

Mr Han

Re: Service Life

That's why it's recommended to fit the thermostat in a cold part of the house, but this isn't always feasible. Most new builds now have 2 zones for upstairs and downstairs, so provide greater control.

Mr Han

Re: Winter drawers on

Putting 'denier' in there makes you sound like a religious zealot.

Mr Han

Re: Holiday Homes

From experience, most people do turn their thermostats up and down. I would say more than 95% of the time men lower the temperature and women raise it. It's a very common point of contention.

Many older programmable thermostats have a default 'comfort' setting of 16 deg (siemens, honeywell, drayton), so the earlier poster is partly correct. The newer ones tend to work at 7 deg, probably because people complained the comfort setting was too high. I vary mine between 16 and 22 depending on how active I am.

I studied hard, I trained for years. Yay, now I'm an astronaut in space. Argggh, leukemia!

Mr Han

Re: Kinda makes sense...

Just as drinking beer will kill the weaker brain cells first so that only the strongest cells survive, thus making you smarter by killing off stupidity..

Total Inability To Support User Phones: O2 fries, burning data for 32 million Brits

Mr Han

Re: Backup?

People seem to carry a lot of stuff these days. I rarely carry little more than one visa card, one backup credit card, one phone, plenty of cash and two keys. I use a slim wallet for the cash and my mobile case for the cards, so I have no loyalty cards. If it doesn't comfortably fit in my trouser pocket then I don't carry it.

Mobile networks are killing Wi-Fi for speed around the world

Mr Han

Exactly. This would be a story if mobile data plans were anywhere near as affordable as home broadband.

Money would be better spent expanding 3g coverage and removing 3g data caps.

Brits shun country life over phone not-spot fears

Mr Han

Re: As it happens...

The problem here tends to be mobile phone coverage indoors - all the buildings are really old, with 3 foot thick stone walls, which GSM signals tend not to penetrate particularly well.

As much as I find it annoying when I don't have a signal, I'm also often glad I have no signal. And at least you're forced to get some fresh air once in a while.

GDPR USA? 'A year ago, hell no ... More people are open to it now' – House Rep says EU-like law may be mulled

Mr Han

I see still see many UK sites with opt-in or excessive clicking to 'confirm' you haven't opted-in. I'm hoping that fines will eventually start to roll in and this will change, but I'm not holding my breath.

Incidentally, if you're interested, the ICO has a survey to collect views on privacy for children. It's open until 5th December. However, when I clicked the link on the ICO homepage it said I'd already completed the survey. I had to go to the survey homepage and click on the surevy from there.

It's a long survey, I think about 30 minutes if you take your time, but well worth doing.

Silent running: Computer sounds are so '90s

Mr Han

Re: The Distaff Sound

According to one report, air-conditioning is sexist too. The ramblings of a few derranged women (and some men) should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Mr Han

Re: Trigger Happy

Dom Joly wouldn't look out of place today, what with everyone yelling into their humungous handsets. Jackass wouldn't work either now that you have people on youtube thinking a telephone directory with a man's chest behind it would stop a bullet.

NASA to celebrate 55th anniversary of first Moon landing by, er, deciding how to land humans on the Moon again

Mr Han

Flat-earthers

Well they'd certainly take up less room especially if we stacked them like a pack of cards.

Mr Han

Re: How to land humans on the Moon again ...

1 It will take 10 times longer than Apollo.

2. It will cost 1000 times more.

and that's just for phase 1 of the diversity recruitment program.

Mr Han

Re: De-orbit ISS

I've also heard that single use, disposable dust masks are perfect protection when cleaning up nuclear fallout.

UKIP flogs latex love gloves: Because Brexit means Brexit

Mr Han

Re: Appropriate seeing as our future prospects have been shafted

I nearly upvoted you but I couldn't bring myself to change the 69 upvotes. Sorry.

Some of you really don't want Windows 10's April 2018 update on your rigs

Mr Han

Oh, and getting rid of Cortana is like playing whack-a-mole.

A couple of weeks ago my perfectly working 9 year old Win7 laptop died (damaged power supply fried something). I needed a working PC urgently but didn't want to rush in, so I bought an old refurbished 2011 desktop on Amazon for £150 to keep me going. I'd avoided Win10 until now, but this has Win10 for refurbished PCs installed.

It's just taken me 2 weeks to get it almost back to how my Win7 box was running. Part of the process involved removing Cortana. I've got it down from 1.5GB RAM to 800MB on a 4GB sytem, I have Win10 using about half of a 50GB partition. It currently boots in roughly 20 - 25 seconds, down from about 50.

If you want to remove Cortana then this is how:

Spoof your browser to something other than Windows. You'll then be able to download the Windows 1803 .iso from the MS download site to your HDD. Download MSMG tools 8.7 from the link on MyDigitalLife:

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/msmg-toolkit.50572

You need an account to read the post on page 1 which provides the link to the latest version.

Back up your HDD, import the Windows .iso into MSMG and read the guide in the readme.txt for the version you've downloaded. You can then remove Defender, Cortana, Media Player, IE11, all store apps and a bunch of other bloat before you burn the .ISO to disc.

Bear in mind it can be a bit ruthless on the advanced Windows section. I found leaving the Store App and Edge browser intact keeps things running well. Even if you just remove Cortana, Defender and all apps except Store then it's a big improvement.

Uh-oh. Boffins say most Android apps can slurp your screen – and you wouldn't even know it

Mr Han

Question. Isn't this what the recent apps switcher does?

Even when I press 'quit' in FF with FF set to clear all private data, if I then open 'recent apps' then my previously visited webpage is shown in all it's glory, even when this page isn't available when I reopen FF.

This also happens on iOS which I've noticed shows the content of text messages in the recent apps view.

If the apps are closed using the 'clear all' function of Android, or the laborious 'swipe close' function of iOS, then this data appears to be gone

Mr Han

Re: Fuck it

Did this produce a cute little phone that could be dipped in boiling water and make a lovely tasting beverage?

Aussie bloke wins right to sue Google over 'underworld' images

Mr Han

Never heard of him...

...until now.

Didn't know he was a hitman...

...until now

Didn't know he lived in Melbourne...

...until now

Didn't know he was a grandad...

...etc

Android users: Are you ready for the great unbundling?

Mr Han

Re: Adventures in a NEW Android 6 Phone

For less slurpy apps try these:

First off get F-Droid, then use this to get Yalp Store.

Use these to download alternative apps such as Simple Calendar, Simple Gallery, Here Maps, OSMand, QKSMS, K9-Mail, VLC, Newpipe (for downloading YT), Webtube (for viewing YT), Total Commander or alternatively Ghost Commander (FOSS), and MUpdf.

Always start with F-Droid for no slurp FOSS apps, then Yalp store will give you access to Play Store for the rest.

Yalp store gets you access to Firefox and then you can install Noscript and U-Block.

I also recommend MOAAB to replace your hosts file (needs root).

Then

Mr Han

Re: Adventures in a NEW Android 6 Phone

I use AFwall+ from f-droid but you need to Root your phone. If you're unfamiliar with rooting then find the forum for your phone on XDA forums and read everything in the Root and Backup sections before you continue.

YouTube also has good instructionals with links for software required to root.

It's possible to live without Gapps and get 3 - 4 days battery.

Google nukes military AI, Amazon happy touting Rekognition to police, and much more

Mr Han

Re: Professional writers should not make this mistake?

Or Contraction of "it has" (Informal.)

What's the problem?

What do you mean 'what has the problem?'. It has English grammar rules of course. It's is so confusing. :)

GDPRmageddon: They think it's all over! Protip, it has only just begun

Mr Han

DVLA

Does GDPR now mean the DVLA are no longer permitted to sell my data to the highest bidder?

Max Schrems is back: Facebook, Google hit with GDPR complaint

Mr Han

Re: A Living Legend

I tried to send him a 6-pack of San Miguel but WHOIS came up blank, Facebook too. I can't seem to find his email address either.

The man must be paranoid or something. It's as if he can't deal with a little SPAM, targetted advertising, hidden trackers, inavasions of privacy, identity theft, mass data collection and sharing, impossible to find opt-outs, almost non-existent opt-ins, and a general 'couldn't don't give a toss about your privacy' attitude.

I will have to drink it myself by way of celebration.

US websites block netizens in Europe: Why are they ghosting EU? It's not you, it's GDPR

Mr Han

Re: Default opt-ins

I just visited Yahoo and had to go through a long-winded process of opting out before my cookie could be set. Surely I should be able to visit Yahoo and accept a cookie that is by default opt-out.

Sounds like they think GDPR is a joke and will pass if they continue to ignore it.

Off with e's head: E-cig explosion causes first vaping death

Mr Han

Re: Have a heart

I'd just read Thalmadge's obituary when I wrote my post so, although I can appreciate the humorous anology with exploding Cuban cigars, I didn't feel the headline was in good taste. However, when I was teenager I know I would have reacted just as insensitively, if not more so.

Similarily, after reading today's headlines about the Texas highschool shooter, I also wouldn't have found a headline such as 'Texas Chainsaw Highschool Masacre' in good taste either.

Mr Han

Have a heart

Don't you think it's a bit much for gallows humour headlines and to talk of Darwin awards?

An intelligent, hard-working, young man has just died in a tragic accident.

RIP Tallmadge.

Honor bound: Can Huawei's self-cannibalisation save the phone biz?

Mr Han

Re: Obvious way to differentiate?

"Ok, I'm going to be *that guy* and point out that the latest 11.3 version of iOS runs (barely) on the 5S"

I recently replaced my rooted Galaxy S2 which, over the past 6-7 years, I've upgraded from Android 4.0 through to 7.1.2 (ICS to Nougat).

It still works lovely as a backup/pub/beach phone, lasts for several days with a spare battery, has regular updates to Lineage OS (Oreo, 8.1.0 is available), AND I can still purchase spare batteries for under £10. It also fits in my front jeans pocket.

As for my current mobile, it does all I need. I've just ordered a spare battery to get roughly 6 days out of it, it also fits in my pocket, and I can choose from a number of custom ROMs to completely alter the look and feel. All for under £140.

So although official updates are slow, a rooted Android will allow updates far beyond what is officially available.

UK has rejected over 1,000 skilled IT bod visa applications this year

Mr Han

Re: Priorities

As I write, the votes for the 2 posts above mine stand at 50/50 up/down votes. We really are a divided nation, aren't we? With one half thinking the other half are a bunch of fools :)

Perhaps it's the Dunning-Kruger effect at play.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10626367

“Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.”

or in the words of Confucius:

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance"

People like convenience more than privacy – so no, blockchain will not 'decentralise the web'

Mr Han

Re: What problem is this solving?

For me, Google no longer works well.

Maybe it's because I don't have a Google account, but I've found the quality of my searches has severly declined over the past few years and Gapps are a massive battery drain, so I now use alternative search engines.

Where possible, I also use F-droid alternatives to replace many of the built-in Android apps (gallery, calendar, maps, email client, SMS). There's also Jottacloud and Posteo for cloud storage and email, and custom ROMs such as ViperOS, Ressurrection Remix or Lineage OS which work well without Gapps. Yalp store allows me to access play store apps such as VLC and Here maps.

It's a little bit of work but the gain in battery life alone is worth the effort.

Android devs prepare to hit pause on ads amid Google GDPR chaos

Mr Han

Re: Google, you're a joke.

GDPR is what happens when the likes of Google, Facebook et al. become greedier and greedier and greedier for personal data, to the point where we now talk of 'Big Data', 'Data Slurping', etc.

Incidentally, I've noticed I no longer receive sufficient search results with Google and now have much more success with Yahoo or Bing.

Peak smartphone? Phone fatigue hits Western Europe hard

Mr Han

Re: Expandable RAM please!

I had the same problem. I had to repit (reparition) my S2 to install Nougat. It took me several attempts and a bricked phone (which I managed to recover from) before I coukd install Nougat.

Mr Han

Re: Oldy but Goody

The camera is the most optional part of any smartphone for me

Me too. I survived many years without the need to carry a camera everywhere I go, so for me a good camera is a 'nice to have'. Also. 2G, 3G and wi-fi meet my needs.

Removable battery is my number one priority.

UK 'wife'-carrying champion named

Mr Han

Re: Where's the IT Angle then?

It's the 'wife' part that infuriates the twitterazzi. The rules are so flexible as to who may carry whom that they may as well call it a piggy-back race.

Mr Han

Re: Where's the IT Angle then?

I would ask my 'wife' to eat the beans. It woukd be a little more aerodynamic without those tins and with the added bonus of rocket fuel.

Furious gunwoman opens fire at YouTube HQ, three people shot

Mr Han

Hmmm, not sure about the downvote for correcting your comment. The BBC article referenced by 2+2=5 stated the murder rate for London was higher in both February and March, not just one month, as you wrote.

Aside from this, that the murder rate in London was higher than NY for a couple of months is surely a measure of NY's success, not that London is becoming more violent.

https://www.amny.com/news/nyc-homicides-record-low-1.15725051

Mr Han

How prophetic

"A third option given that it is YT would be someone aggrieved about the abysmal rates per video stream."

When I first read the above comment in the ealy hours, I thought it just a bit of a dig at youtube. Since then the article has been updated with the following:

"she was, according to her family, "angry" that YouTube had stopped paying her for her online videos and had taken down her material."

:-o

Mr Han

"For one month. Ever.

The UKs murder rate is still way lower."

The article states it was higher for both February and March of 2018. Not a good start for the year.

Super Cali goes ballistic, Starbucks is on notice: Expensive milky coffee is something quite cancerous

Mr Han

Re: Not a big deal

You just did.

Scammers become the scammed: Ransomware payments diverted with Tor proxy trickery

Mr Han

Re: Twice screwed

This is called 'taking responsibility for your own actions' which, in many areas of modern life, seems to have been forgotten.

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