Posts by Is It Me

Exsparko-destructus! What happens when wand waving meets extremely poor wiring

Re: Reversed polarity

I have seen more wall sockets wired up the wrong way then extension leads

McDonald's AI drive-thru bot accused of breaking biometrics privacy law

Re: Success Rate

Not sure that the touch screen user is in the UK as I think Wendys has only just re-launched over here.

ASUS baffles customer by telling them thermal pad thickness is proprietary

Re: At this point I wonder exactly which provider makes sense

With phones Nokia now is nothing to do with Nokia then, Nokia phones now is HMD with Nokia now doing other things.

Google to revive RSS support in Chrome for Android

I pretty much just use RSS for following a few webcomics now, oh and BOFH just in case I don't notice it when I have a scan through El Reg and find that the free level of Feedly works for that

Nvidia nerfs RTX 3080, 3070, 3060 Ti GPUs to shoo away Ethereum miners

If you read the first comment it tells you, they are doing 3d modelling.

I got myself a 3070 based computer as I am intending to do some photogrammetry in the near future (and play some games too) and the NVidia cards CUDA cores make a big difference to the time taken to do the work.

Microsoft says Outlook hit by 'email visibility issues' – as in, they're blank

Re: 2021

This is for the Office 365 versions of the desktop software, they are designed to constantly update themselves and are the software option that MS is pushing.

For example if you work somewhere that has the Office 365 E3 or above (or Education equivalent) each user gets 5 licenses to install the desktop suite, but only of the automatically updating version.

Appeals court nixes online blueprint sharing ban on 3D-printed 'ghost guns'

Re: Bah!

Almost certainly true in the UK, you just need to go through a lot more paperwork than in "The Land of the Free", my custom 10/22 (not sure if there are any Ruger parts in it apart from the magazines) was less than £250, and that included a scope and moderator (silencer or suppressor or what ever you want to call it).

I think in "The Land of the Free" you would need to spend that much on the license for the suppressor.

Apple faces another suit over its allegedly misleading water resistance claims

Re: Apple only needs to show...

I had an argument with a car dealer that a car I got from them (2nd hand, but only 6 months old from a main dealer) wasn't fix for purpose as I asked if it had full iPod control and was told it did.

After I tried it I found it only supported iPods via bluetooth (no track listings etc, but can pause and skip) or AUX in, no control from the car at all.

I said I would be returning it for a full refund if they didn't resolve it, in the end they got an external company in to do an upgrade on the car.

It is an obscure feature that was important to me (I listen to Audible audio books from an iPod classic when driving any distance) and I specifically asked about it before making the deal and would have waited for another one of the same model but with the factory fitted upgrade to come in.

How do you save an ailing sales pitch? Just burn down the client's office with their own whiteboard

Re: " 220V on which South Korea operates"

And (at least in 1996) South Korea.

It took me 3 or 4 days to work out why a digitiser connected to a CCTV camera wasn't working (this was part of an animation line test system set up on an Amiga), it had all worked when several together in the UK installed the software and tested. I had even labelled all the connectors with matching sticky dots to make it as easy as possible to put it together.

Several had been sent to 2 different animation companies in Seoul and none were working.

I got nearly a week in Seoul, but only 2 half days to look around as it took so long to find out that it was 60Hz and there was a switch in the CCTV camera that needed changing if it wasn't running on 50Hz

You would expect a qualified electrician to wire a building to spec, right? Trust... but verify

South Korea (at least in the mid-90s) had both 110v and 2x0v supplies, but even the 2x0v mains ran at 60Hz.

Loser Trump's last financial disclosure docs reveal Tim Cook gave him $5,999 Mac Pro, the 'first' made in Texas

Re: I was wondering...

He will sign multiple copies of each thing, and use one pen for each.

The pens are often used as gifts saying that they were used to sign x in to law.

100GB doesn't always cut it in these remote-working times so Microsoft has upped OneDrive file size upload limit to 250GB

Re: All these unnecessary limitations

I think this is talking mostly about sharing files across sites, so if you are working with someone to edit a video one person might do the colour grading and someone else adding the audio etc.

Pizza and beer night out the window, hours trying to sort issue, then a fresh pair of eyes says 'See, the problem is...'

Re: Proof reader

Our previous helpdesk software did this, so you would copy and paste an email address and it would fail and all sorts of other oddities

The curse of knowing a bit about IT: 'Could you just...?' and 'No I haven't changed anything'

Re: Printers attached to PC's

This makes me think you might be a rebreather diver (I know there are other places that use 3 sensors and voting logic)

Cats: Not a fan favourite when the critters are draped around an office packed with tech

Re: Dead mouse

We once lost one of our cats for about 4 days, turns out it had been exploring a near by house that was being renovated and had gotten himself boarded up under the floor.

The workmen had to lift a bit of floor and out popped the cat, came straight home and ate and drank it's own body weight.

They can survive longer than you think

Happy birthday to the Nokia 3310: 20 years ago, it seemed like almost everyone owned this legendary mobile

Again the 3210 had no aerial, so should be the one that got the love.

Oh what a cute little animation... OH MY GOD. (Not acceptable, even in the '80s)

Re: Adult floppies...

Ha ha ha ha. You dumb b@$tard. It's not a schooner... it's a Sailboat

Folk sure like to stick electric toothbrush heads in their ears: True wireless stereo sales buck coronavirus trends

Sell them, that is what I did with the earphones that came with my iPod years ago.

Since Apple sells them for a painful price you can get a decent amount of money from an Apple fan.

A memo from the distant future... June 2022: The boss decides working from home isn't the new normal after all

Re: It could work out if love comes from two sides

One thing to consider, is the costs of working from home will vary with the seasons for most people.

In the UK in winter the heating bills will go up considerably, my heating comes on for a little bit in the morning for house to be comfortable to wash and dress then goes off until shortly before I would get home from work.

If I am working from home come winter the heating will be on all day.

With similar issues for places that need cooling to be comfortable in summer.

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

You can get Teams for free, just sign up with any email account that isn't associated with an MS account/service

Bose shouts down claims that it borked noise cancellation firmware to sell more headphones

Re: Never, Ever Buying Bose Again...

Is the answer not in the article, that they didn't actually change anything to do with the ANC.

I have seen this in desktop support, you tell users that you are going to do something and don't do it for some reason. Suddenly they are all logging tickets saying "since the change such and such hasn't worked", even though there was no change.

What ever it was either is working fine, or had been broken for ages but the idea that we had changed something prompt them to notice it.

Where's the best place to add Mentos to Diet Coke for the most foam? How big are the individual bubbles? Has science gone too far?

Re: Back in the old days

Mint imperials work very well, in fact from the unscientific testing I did a few years ago they work better than Mentos.

And cheap diet cola also works at least as well as name brand diet cola

Marriott Hotels hacked AGAIN: Two compromised employee logins abused to siphon off 5.2m guests' personal info

Re: 2FA FTW!

Having the customers turn on 2FA wouldn't have made any difference, having staff use it probably would

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

Re: What are the alternatives?

Same here, used it for a few years at work and found it to be reliable and works with our existing Polycom kit, which Teams won't

Stuck at home? Why not let an edgy, GPU-boosted slice of Azure keep you company?

Re: "Wooden box market"

Shouldn't that be artisanal wooded racks hand crafted by the monks on a Himalayan mountainside?

Reach for the sky: Pixar founders win Turing Award for pioneering 3D animation – and getting rid of jagged edges

Re: So well deserved !!!

If that was at the BFI I went to that too

Oh, we may have found the COVID-19 silver lining: Coronavirus pandemic halts Xerox hostile takeover of HP

Re: Well that's new

It looks like part of the reason they are stopping is that they can't go out and meet & greet the current HP shareholders at the bribery events (like expensive dinners etc.)

Hey, friends. We know it's a crazy time for the economy, but don't forget to enable 2FA for payments by Saturday

Re: Not on amazon

I believe the rules are for the bank/card issuer.

Amazon have taken on the financial risk of card holder not present for a long time by not asking for the CV2 number. They decided that any loss is worth it to minimise the effort from their customers

Deliveroo UK adds 'Don't interact with the help' option for when ordering a burger

Re: 10,000 or 596?

It is quite simple, the number of cases were someone has been tested and tested positive is 596.

10,000 is the expected number of actual cases that there in the UK allowing for the fact that the majority of people with symptoms aren't being tested and allowing for people who are infected and not yet showing symptoms.

Computer, deactivate self-destruct system requirement, says Sonos... were it on a starship in space, and not a smart-speaker slinger

I am probably coming across as a Sonos apologist, but for those who have suggested possible alternatives none of them come near the Sonos experience and especially not for non-technical people.

The multi room side of Sonos gives perfectly in sync sound across rooms, the set up is user friendly and simple, adding music services is also user friendly and simple.

The sound quality out of the "Play" speakers is good enough for most people under most circumstances and the "Connect" is there for those that want better quality from their existing speakers and amps.

Management seems set on destroying the reputation of the product with these announcements and then retractions though

Re: Firmware

They have, and this was referenced in the article.

Electro-smog, govt snooping be damned. Two thirds of folks polled worldwide would trade in their mobes for 5G kit

Re: So...

My reading is that they will be trading in their existing handset, so it will be refurbed and flogged on again.

Drones must be constantly connected to the internet to give Feds real-time location data – new US govt proposal

Re: Useless

That assumes that there aren't any legitimate uses for guns.

So no target sports, no hunting to manage populations of animals (e.g. deer), no pest control, etc.

I think in the UK our gun control is close to being right, although it is a bit odd that the Olympic pistol shooting is effectively banned in the UK (apart from oddities like Northern Ireland).

Social media notifications of the future: Ranger tagged you in a photo with Tessadora, Wrenlow, Faelina and Graylen

Re: Due diligence

Thanks for this, I didn't realise that they Swallows were based on a family like that.

Ancient Ore Crusher or KillBot 2000? NASA gets ready to pick a name for its Mars 2020 Rover

Re: Poll Participation Map

Maybe they are mechanical turks...

Remember that Sonos speaker you bought a few years back that works perfectly? It's about to be screwed for... reasons

Re: Suggestions please...

Just don't do anything, according to the email and the notes here it will keep working.

Re: Makes logitech look like....

The reason for the popularity is non-techies.

I got some initially for my mother as she was struggling to control her DAB radio as she lost motor control, the Sonos app on a large iPad solved that instantly.

I inherited them and my technophobic other half has no issues finding and playing music, creating playlists, have the music move around the house with her etc.

At this point I am not sure that I would buy any more kit from them (was looking at getting a "connect" so it will play through the higher quality amp and speakers in the living room) which is a shame as they did perfectly well for a non-audiophile.

Hospital hacker spared prison after plod find almost 9,000 cardiac images at his home

Re: hahahahah

You used to have "hacker" as someone that could do cool things with computers that they weren't originally expected to do, this is the sense it is used if those horrible "life hack" videos people keep posting on YouTube and FaceBook.

Then you had a cracker, which was someone that cracked security systems to break their way in.

Over time main stream media just used hacker for anything related to doing something dodgy with computers and that is now how it is used by the general public.

Unlocking news: We decrypt those cryptic headlines about Scottish cops bypassing smartphone encryption

Re: The FEDs want remote access...

Our happily uses it's cat flap (or teleportation abilities) when no one is looking, but as soon as there is a human slave it sits and stares at the outside world until the door magically is opened.

The time that Sales braved the white hot heat of the data centre to save the day

Re: This is an old, old problem

HR normally have to have it, and if someone sufficiently senior asks it would have got passed on in the past.

Hopefully if that happened now you could hit them with a GDPR complaint.

This is also a system for GPs, right? UK doctors seek clarity over Health dept's £40m single sign-on funding

Re: WTF are they doing ?

I have managed to get connected to Portsmouth Uni's (not my employer) EduRoam with out noticing when at the ferry terminal, and only have a couple of visitors to my employer mention issues when connecting so I believe it must.

Leaks point to Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra with mammoth 108MP camera and ... what? 16GB of RAM

Re: How big is the imager?

It will probably be the other way around.

There have been articles on here about using multiple pixels to cope with low light etc.

Whirlybird-driving infosec boss fined after ranty Blackpool Airport air traffic control antics

Re: Having been in a private whirly bird..

"Kilburn White horse", had to search that, as the the only Kilburn I know is in North West London and I wasn't aware of any horses there

Someone needs to go back to school: Texas district fleeced for $2.3m after staff fall for devious phishing email

Pretty much the same on Monzo and even Barclays. I think I had to pay a small fee when I have done it from Barclays.

If at first you don't succeed, pry, pry again: Feds once again demand Apple unlock encrypted iPhones in yet another terrorism case

Re: What about that 'Cellbrite' kit?

Probably wasn't a scam, could probably only unlock a particular version of iOS based on a flaw in the OS.

A user's magnetic charm makes for a special call-out for our hapless hero

Re: Been there. Almost.

Also seen it from FitBit style watches with a magnet based strap.

Mostly (at least on the laptops I played with) the magnetic switch was on the right and most people wear their watch on the left so it is quite rare

A sprinkling of Star Wars and a dash of Jedi equals a slightly underbaked Rise Of Skywalker

Re: waiting for the video...

Saw it at our local multi-screen cinema, and paid £15 (aprox. $20) for two adults in the "VIP" seats (nice big leather chairs).

Would have been £10 if we had gone with the standard seats.

I think you need to find a new cinema.

iFixit surgeons dissect Apple's pricey Mac Pro: Industry standard sockets? Repair diagrams? Who are you and what have you done to Apple?

I am pretty sure that this is the way it was done in the early days of digital video editing.

IT isn't supposed to stand for Insider Trading... Palo Alto Networks sysadmin and pals accused of $7m shares caper

I think you are probably looking at this the wrong way, the data analysis flagged something suspicious and then looking at logs they found his IP address.

Microsoft's Teams goes to bat for the other team with preview on Linux

Re: "There is no escape from collaboration"

We have only been using it a few weeks but I don't have all the issues that you seem to (I am running the Windows client).

In chat you can add multiple people to the chat, it isn't intuitive, you have to click a strange people icon at the top right of the chat.

I work in UK English, so type things like colour and haven't yet have it flag up anything that I have correctly typed as being misspelt.

I do agree that one thing at a time in one window needs to be resolved, and that there are lots of other things that can be improved.