* Posts by steviebuk

2198 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Feb 2017

That awful Butterfly has finally fluttered off: Apple touts 13-inch MacBook Pro with proper keyboard, Escape key

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: specs vs. prices

I'm still using a 8 year old Lenovo i7 with 32GB RAM. Only cost just over 1k at the time if I remember right. Now swapped out the HDD with a 1TB SSD that only cost either 80 or just over 100 in a sale. Only thing on it is the battery is pretty much dead. Lasts about 20mins on battery. But thats not an issue as I don't move it about. And it plays Rimworld perfectly. Can upgrade the RAM myself, no soldered on bullshit. Taken the keyboard out myself and given the insides a clean. Apple don't want even their own owners doing that with their objection to right to repair.

They all last if you take care of them and keep the OS fresh.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Apple have lost it

My partner has one, I despise Apple kit. Was playing with it wanting to put VMs on it. Then discovered they'd sold her the one with a tidy amount of hard drive space (purchased before me). Its no longer 2015 and I looked to see how much a 1TB drive would be for it. HOW MUCH! But its from 2015!

Fucking Apple bullshit prices!

steviebuk Silver badge

Because their policy of being against right to repair. And the piece that was done on them on the news in America. Taking a MacBook in with an issue and being told it would cost over 1000 to have it "repaired" would be cheaper to just get a new one. When taken to an independent repair shop, only about 80 would of been charged and turned out it was just a pin bent on the motherboard power connector.

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

steviebuk Silver badge

Microsoft640k or just 640k.

In reference to Bill Gated memory comment all those years back.

Go on, hit Reply All. We dare you. We double dare you. Because Office 365 will defeat your server-slamming ways

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: That sucks!

True. That is the one of the main issues of the NHS middle management and too many of them. Managed to get a phishing email at work from an NHS.net account. Checked the logs and it wasn't spoofed. Bit worrying knowing an NHS.net account was compromised.

UK COVID-19 contact-tracing app data may be kept for 'research' after crisis ends, MPs told

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Lying ?

But that's the problem. We all want it to be anonymous so you won't be able to ID people. Push it via VPN, the VPN is purchased with "cleaned" bitcoin and although the GPS will give away your location (which won't match your VPN saying you're in America), a simple use of a burner phone with false details given or purchased off Fleabay, Gumtree or the like and I don't know how they'd be able to prosecute anyone. Especially if you could just say "I believed I had it".

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: GDPR

What if you run it through a VPN? The IP will be invalid. I wonder if it will end up like the South Korean anonymised medical data, that people were able to track back to the original owner. And like South Korean had in 2015 with their ID numbers.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: No chance

I saw that first article the other day. There will no doubt be something similar in next issue of Private Eye I bet.

steviebuk Silver badge

Open to abuse

Having seen the screenshots of the IOW trial, you can see you enter the details yourself if you believe you have it.

How long before dicks start poisoning the database with bogus data because

1. They are dicks

2. Not sure about their heath so, not maliciously, say they have symptoms when they don't.

3. Is a hypochondriac and believes they have it when they don't so just fills in the form saying they do.

And lets put bets on how long before that centralised database is breached. Hancock has wanted "digital" in the NHS for years, he's using this as his chance to get what he wants.

And whats the better who ever has developed this or "Helped" develop the app they'll be MPs with shares in the company.

India to build contact-tracing app for feature phones that still use 2G, don't have Bluetooth and can't run apps

steviebuk Silver badge

This is the problem

My dad for example has a Microsoft phone that is now defunct and only really for calls. There will be no app for that I'm sure. And I think my mum has a featureless phone. Wouldn't surprise me if there are a lot of old people in homes with no mobile, the very people they want to install the app.

We could repair old phones and give them those but because the industry, especially Apple, is so dead against right to repair, that can't happen either.

Florida man might just stick it to HP for injecting sneaky DRM update into his printers that rejected non-HP ink

steviebuk Silver badge

So do I. Quite frankly, it's a dick move by HP.

Nine million logs of Brits' road journeys spill onto the internet from password-less number-plate camera dashboard

steviebuk Silver badge

And putting their whole lives on Facebook and job history on linkedin.

I, in the 90s, being the idiot that I am/was and was looking for unique ideas for my website, posted my whole CV on the site. Because I'd seen someone elses "cool" site do it. I still have the files from the late 90s backed up. I cringe now when I see it. What an idiot for putting my CV details online and realising, after reading the rest of my site, that is most likely why I never got any work offers, the not state of the CV. I'm glad, in that respect, I've grown up (I'm still 12 in my head and am not ashamed to still love Lego. But that site, was god awful and embarrassing. I appeared to pretend I was like the characters from Men Behaving Badly yet I was far far from it :) despite liking the show)

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Always abused

Although with a subject access request they have to confirm your ID so you have to mail it in.

steviebuk Silver badge

Always abused

ANPR is always abused. I put in a right to be forgotten request to the management company of the local Waitrose carpark. I was told "You're not getting a ticket so have nothing to worry about. We keep the ANPR data for 6 months to help with crime prevention." To which I pointed out that is illegal and against GDPR. You are only allowed to keep the plates for the time required, not 6 months. My car is not getting a ticket so you no longer need to hold the data. And further more ANPR is NOT to be used for CCTV purposes as you're claiming you are using it for"

They deleted the plate shortly after. I requested it be removed from their backups also. I was ignored.

UK snubs Apple-Google coronavirus app API, insists on British control of data, promises to protect privacy

steviebuk Silver badge

Later

WHEN there's a breach we'll find out the database was never encrypted or, more likely, the Bluetooth data won't be encrypted and easily intercepted and manipulated.

I never have my Bluetooth on. Only recently got Bluetooth headphones so only put it on when cooking and turn it off when done as it uses up the battery.

steviebuk Silver badge

Watching from the bunker

"Your privacy is crucial to the NHS, and so while these are unusual times, we are acutely aware of our obligations to you."

Until we decide we need someone else to manage it because its too expensive so we'll outsource it to Crapita who'll eventually leak the whole fucking database to the world. And then we'll hear "Your data security is important to us. Lessons have been learned." The lessons a low down member of the team had been warning us about for months and we constantly told them "Be a yes person and shut up or fuck off".

This was always the issue when I was in the NHS, the management.

Lbry are doing well with their decentralised YouTube alternative, so why don't they do the same with this app?

How long before they piss away millions on it only to scrap it for a decentralised version.

Wall Street analyst worries iPhone is facing '2nd recession' after 2019 annus horribilis

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Too bl**dy expensive now to upgrade every 2yrs

"Probably not a bad thing from an environmental perspective either."

Not sure about that as they are against right to repair. But right to repair will allow independent repairs shops to fix old iPhones saving them from the shit heap.

'Non-commercial use only'? Oopsie. You can't get much more commercial than a huge digital billboard over Piccadilly

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Free for non-commercial use?

The nag screen with randomly pop up on a disconnect even with the paid version. We get it sometimes at work.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Free for non-commercial use?

Bit confused. You pay for your license so you install the business version on yours and login. Everyone, your clients, are free to install the free version and you, under your license, are entitled to then connect to theirs. Its how we use it at work. We have 2 channels. 3 of us are signed in as the admin on our laptops. All other laptops have the free version installed with unattended remote access on. 2 of us can connect at a time. This setup is how TeamViewer themselves say to roll it out.

So not sure why your license doesn't allow them to install the free version for you to then be able to use your corporate version to connect.

India says 'Zoom is a not a safe platform' and bans government users

steviebuk Silver badge

The Queen uses it so it's *100% safe.

*It's not. But upper management like stuff that's easy and tend not to listen. Until there is a breach, and will then point a finger at you and make you take the fall.

Microsoft 365 invites users to 'Ask Me Anything' – as long as it doesn't require a clued-up exec to deliver clear answers

steviebuk Silver badge

Still better than gsuite

Lockdown endgame? There won't be one until the West figures out its approach to contact-tracing apps

steviebuk Silver badge

Also the in the UK we have plenty of fuck whits (chavs) that ignore rules and think they'll never get it. The same idiots that all went to the pub for one last glass before they shut. The same (and I'd call these ones cunts) that were in Spain singing "We all have the virus" ignoring the Spanish police. If I were Spain. I'd have taken a record of all their passports and banned them for 10 years.

Australia to make Google and Facebook disclose ranking algorithms and pay for local content

steviebuk Silver badge

As much as I dislike them I disagree. Some things they do good and free. Google Keep is very useful, shame no decent plugin for Firefox. And Google Maps is very useful, being able to see my old home town in street view is fascinating.

Baby, I swear it's déjà vu: TalkTalk customers unable to opt out of ISP's ad-jacking DNS – just like six years ago

steviebuk Silver badge

Teamviewer

TalkTalk are the same knobs that decide to, by default, block Teamviewer on their routers because "The bad guys use it" yes, and they use other fucking apps as well. And us good support people also use Teamviewer so now everyone is staying at home, we're having to try and talk people through logging onto their router to unblock Teamviewer so we can then connect to them.

I hate TalkTalk, the dicks.

Don't Zoom off elsewhere: Google plugs video-chat service Meet into Gmail as user eyes start wandering

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Looking back...

Problem is they haven't done much development on Hangouts for a long time and its now disappearing for the public and moving to gsuite only.

Capita inks deal with NHS to 'bring back staff': Workers get an hour of training to recruit and vet retired doctors, nurses

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Shambling to Gehenna

I swear he has naked photos of people that don't want them released. He's shit at everything he did yet kept being put in important positions.

steviebuk Silver badge

How long...

...before we find out, which will also expose a "cover up", that Crapita fucked up, and signed off on a medic as legit and not at all struck off.

Sadly, I fear, that won't happen until we discover that medic also killed a few people in their return to front line.

Hopefully it doesn't come to that, hopefully someone else spots it before they get a chance to do any damage.

Craptia are looking for praise but all they really give a shit about is looking like they are doing something so they can win loads of government contracts when this is all over because "Crapita where helpful nice chaps and chapesses."

New IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says hybrid cloud will be bigger than mainframes, services, middleware

steviebuk Silver badge

I wonder if...

... he's reversed the "Not allowed to work from home policy" the past knob put in place.

From Amanda Holden to petrol-filled water guns: It has been a weird week for 5G

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Consequeneces

And this is why I feel the clapping for support staff is *pointless. Not because I'm a heatless arsehole (we donated to two NHS charities instead to provide them food and PPE equipment) but because the same people coming out clapping for the NHS are the same people that are burning the masts. And the people like the cunt yesterday who walked up to the local Post Office depot with card in hand with his son. Then proceeded to kick the door with force several times shouting out "Fucking wankers" cause he couldn't get his parcel. "Fuck the safety and wellbeing of the workers, I want my parcel".

*Not totally. I understand some can't afford to donate and it's their only way to give support, which is a nice touch. Just can't stand knowing half of them are probably knobs that were moaning about the NHS before this, and are just taking part so they can stick it on their social media pages to say "Look at me".

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Who'd have thought

I fear 7 people didn't get your joke

Absolutely everyone loves video conferencing these days. Some perhaps a bit too much

steviebuk Silver badge

Maybe I'm not professional enough...

... as if he truly was a cunt, I'd have dropped him in it.

ZX Spectrum prototype ROM is now available for download courtesy of boffins at the UK's Centre for Computing History

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Hardware failed to boot

One person has already decompiled it when I saw their video go up :)

Zoom's end-to-end encryption isn't actually end-to-end at all. Good thing the PM isn't using it for Cabinet calls. Oh, for f...

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Webex....

Knobhead Cummings probably told them to use Zoom and they wouldn't say no. If anyone looks like a bully he REALLY does.

steviebuk Silver badge

This is because...

...Rick Moranis, sorry I mean Michael Gove "has had enough of experts"

:)

UK Information Commissioner OKs use of phone data to track coronavirus spread

steviebuk Silver badge

Aussie!

"But Australia’s PM declares it doesn’t align with national values" but its OK to force back doors into encryption. Fucking idiots!

Yeah, that Zoom app you're trusting with work chatter? It lives with 'vampires feeding on the blood of human data'

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: More fool me

Google Hangouts is fucking awful and the general public version is going away. You'll only be able to use it within gsuite

Brits swarm Dixons Carphone for laptops, printers, games consoles, fridges, freezers to weather out COVID-19 storm

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: mobiles

Or the ability to drop it on the pavement and smash it :)

steviebuk Silver badge

I wonder

"Early signs are that this strong [online] trading has continued since stores closed and will help to compensate for lost sales,"

Lost sales of unneeded warranties.

Internet Archive opens National Emergency Library with unlimited lending of 1.4m books for stuck-at-home netizens amid virus pandemic

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Out of print

And you may buy a digital copy on Amazon, only for whoever owns the copyright to have a falling out with Amazon so the next time your Kindle connects to the Internet, despite having paid for the book, it will get deleted.

PC owners borg into the most powerful computer the world has ever known – all in the search for coronavirus cure

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Very worthy

I only had 64GB RAM because I run a lot of VMs with VMWare Workstation on my PC :)

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Very worthy

Joined the team. Only have an old i7. Had 64GB RAM but now down to 56GB as had issues with a stick a while ago. And only have a GTX 1060

Don't believe the hype: Today's AI unlikely to best actual doctors at diagnosing patients from medical scans

steviebuk Silver badge

Covid has maybe...

...exposed the somewhat bullshit claims of a lot of AI. Because the GPs are now saying they struggle to diagnose people remotely because of requiring to listen to their chest.

World's smallest violin to be played for opportunistic sellers banned from eBay and Amazon for price gouging

steviebuk Silver badge

Hmmm

It's very shitty but the problem is, its capitalism. I don't hear the same bodies shouting at the insurance companies in America that won't give out treatment for Covid for free. When Trump, the idiot, said testing would be free and all treatment, they all rushed to the phones and papers to say "TREATMENT ISN'T FREE".

I don't hear the same bodies berating the likes of Apple for selling their devices at a massive market up. And the American pharma companies putting massive markeups on drugs way before all this kicked off.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the prime minister “wants to sign up to a US trade deal with Trump which would force the NHS to buy pricier drugs from US pharmaceutical companies putting NHS finances at risk”

Capita CEO and CFO take 'voluntary' pay cut of 25% amid coronavirus outbreak

steviebuk Silver badge

Does this..

.. for the free advertising it gets, clearly shown by the pimping of their services and how they can help, when interviewed about this. They'll some how claim it as a charity donation so get tax relief I bet.

Whoa, someone actually texted you in 2020? Oh, nvm, it's just Boris Johnson, telling you to stay the f**k at home

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Fake News

I'm on Three and it was never flagged as spam for me but as it had a link in it, I assumed it was. And the fact was out of the daily exercise walk, thought, if legit, have they spotted me on the move so sent it? :)

Taiwan collars coronavirus quarantine scofflaws with smartphone geo-fences. So, which nation will be next?

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Which is more important, Privacy or Death?

But once this is on, it won't be turned off. We've already seen this in the US with the big citizen database that was created for terrorism tracking yet the FBI started abusing it to look up any old joe/jane.

TeamViewer is going to turn around and ignore what you're doing with its freebie licence to help new remote workers

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Its a bit of a mess at moment

I can only suggest I was panic posting that last one due to all the mistakes.

steviebuk Silver badge

Its a bit of a mess at moment

For us that paid for a licenses as they don't appear to be honouring the same for people with a licenses. We have two agent licenses which it thinks are both in use so we now can't use it.

steviebuk Silver badge

Ironic

We have the paid for version at work. It's ironic as it's now spamming me "An error occurred while retrieving your license. Please restart the application or contact our support." Restarting it isn't helping.

India's peak IT body tells outsourcers to check contract cancellation fine print while Coronavirus reigns

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Contingency plans

And "A plan that I thought of first, before anyone else".