Posts by onefang

Sony Xperia XZ2: High-res audio but no headphone jack

So a bit of movement reliably skips a track. Have Sony rereleased the Discman?

No parcel drones. No robo-trucks – Teamsters driver union delivers its demands to UPS

Re: Drivers

"(we have a sweep running on when he will go postal)"

Hand the sweep list to that person, suggest to him to start with those that picked the day he goes postal, then move onto the next nearest, and leave you be, you having already picked a date a long way from the date chosen. Collect winnings, and split them with him if the SWAT team haven't taken him out.

EU aviation agency publishes new drone framework. Hobbyists won't like it

Re: Regulate footballs also

You forgot to mention that footballs are unerringly attracted to windows, or rather through windows. Broken glass is it's own safety hazard. Now that I have mentioned Windows, we have the IT angle. Breaking Windows must be my most favourite pastime, I do it so often.

Speaking of broken glass, and kites, I'm reliably informed that in some places there are organised battles between kite flyers, where the control strings have a section near the kite covered in tiny bits of glass. The object is to use the sharp bits of glass to cut through the control strings of your opponent.

Are model rockets still a thing?

I used to build and fly model rockets many a decade ago. Built using the same tools, methods, and materials that model aircraft where built with, only using small solid rocket engines instead of small internal combustion engines. And no radio control, there was no control of the rocket once you hit the ignition button. The rocket engines where small tubes you bought from the model shops you bought the rest of the stuff from, and slotted into the rocket body, ignited electrically. Some of the engines had a delay fuse and eject charge at the other end for ejecting the nose cone and deploying the parachute. Sold as kits, or designed your own for the more advanced model rocketeers.

Back in my day you could have a camera in the bigger ones, that took a single shot of the ground once the eject charge for the parachute triggered. No doubt these days you could send live video back to ground level.

If done correctly, and all of the kit instructions, engine wrappers, and magazines heavily emphasised doing things correctly, you where out in the middle of a large empty field, not in any flight paths, had plenty of space downwind for the rocket to land hanging from it's parachute, within an easy to get to retrieval zone, used a safety key on your ignite button, with plenty of distance between people and the launch pad, etc.

The only control you had once they where in flight was to yell at people to get the hell out of the way if things went wrong, or send someone to call an ambulance if things went horribly wrong (pre-dated mobile phones, and usually not done in built up areas with nearby phones). If things only went mildly wrong, your "control" was figuring out how to get it down from what ever tree ate it.

Often the object of the exercise was to how high you could get it. I seem to recall getting about a kilometer regularly. Height limits are gonna take most of the fun out of that.

A print button? Mmkay. Let's explore WHY you need me to add that

Re: The Naked Truth

"Yes, backups are good practice, but paper is static, doesn't change, and doesn't get corrupted or locked by malware."

Paper isn't forever, toner and ink fades, some insects quite like eating or making homes out of paper, paper itself will fall apart if kept in a bad for paper type environment, or even if simply kept for long enough. Paper tends to burn easily, or the ink runs if it gets wet, both can happen during a fire. So paper does change, and does get corrupted, it's not static. Might not be locked by malware, but a two year old might grab some important paper from Daddy/Mummy's desk and scribble all over it with Daddy/Mummy's pen.

"I'm not sure that it takes millions of mirrors to give one a sharp cutting edge."

It only takes one mirror, smashed against any nearby hard object, and you have a million sharp cutting edges.

Re: And despite all this users telemetry...

"[Deep breathes ....in .....out ...in, take a 'Pink' pill .... aaaannnnd .........relax :) :) ]"

But that pill is only 'Pink' coz some designer spent months and millions of dollars figuring out which was the best colour, and the precise shade of 'Pink' for that specific brand of pill. Then a chemist spent many more months, and even more money, trying to figure out how to get those particular pills to be that exact shade of 'Pink'. After which it all had to be carefully explained to the colour blind PHB. A year later and the machines that make the 'Pink' pills, machines designed to a lower budget than the designer and chemist had, have drifted out of spec, and now produce pills that are various shades of kinda light reddish colour. No one noticed, or cared.

I know, I know, my 'Pink' coat looks green.

Intellisense was off and developer learned you can't code in Canadian

Re: Measurements too

Ah good old USA measurement systems, the country that officially went metric in the 1860's, only no one told the people.

Re: I've never quite understood

"The H isn't silent in 'Honour' except in America where they can't pronounce the word 'Herb' properly either!"

The only get too lazy to pronounce the H in 'erb when they are smoking it.

"It does two things.. speeds up compile time and the machine code is "clean" since it doesn't have to process white space. "

Probably his first programming experience was interpreted BASIC where most of that would actually be true. It might even be true for early BASIC compilers like BASCOM on 8-bit CP/M

Back in the '70s APL programs where more memory efficient the more rectangular they where. Lines of code where stored as fixed length strings that where all as long as the longest line of code in the program. Yet one more way to make APL write only code, try to make all the lines of your program the same length.

"The removal of U from colour and other words was partly an attempt to distance American English from English English, but also an attempt to remove some French influences from the language.

"Program used to be the English spelling, but Victorian show promotors wanted to infer a touch of French flair by advertising a programme of events on their posters. These days i refer to television programmes and computer programs."

So what you are describing is a pogrom against the French.

Nokia tribute band HMD revives another hit

Re: Might get one in yellow for my step father

"the new one will be superglued to his nads."

That'll be a bit tricky to use it as a phone, though quite exciting when ever people ring him, and might be lots of trouble using it in public. It will need to be, er, "water" proof.

Voice assistants are always listening. So why won't they call police if they hear a crime?

Re: Not just listening...

"It's impossible to disable the Google Assistant on my Nexus 6P - it's always listening when I'm on the home screen. So I denied the Google app permission to use the microphone!"

Or install a different home / launcher app. There are quite a few good ones.

Re: I could murder

Here's $20, get me a gram of leaves. Earl Grey, or some fruit infusion, don't forget to get change this time.

Re: So....

"Extrapolating this logic into real life, when watching GoT with my surround sound on, I can expect a visit from all the local emergency services then??"

Including the fire brigade, and pest control with really large nets, coz they heard there where dragons in the area.

"Or, even more difficult, tell the difference between a child screaming because they're hurt and a child screaming because an older sibling is tickling them."

I'm well aware of that particular problem. Due to odd acoustics in my area, I'm in ear shot of three local schools. I don't think I could tell the difference between school lunch time and some crazed loon on the loose with a machete.

Very odd acoustics, I've overheard conversations between construction workers building a hospital, in the next suburb.

'I don’t know what Alexa does, but Siri waits for the words “hey Siri”, hard coded in a very low power chip, and doesn’t listen to anything until it gets that signal.'

Which would fail the other way, "HEY SIRI, HELP! I'M BEING MURD...'' gurgle, thump. Hmm, thinks Siri, they are mixing their English and French?

Re: @Boltar

"Even the once great and practical land of Oz seems to have been infected with it."

Yeah, I've been thinking that leaving Oz would be a good idea, if only there was a decent place to go to that isn't below freezing a lot of the time. I hate the cold.

Hubble Space Telescope one of 16 suffering data-scrambling sensor error

Are you two implying that astronomy is being infiltrated by alien grays/greys?

OK, this one looks a bit green, but I suspect it's just an ADC error in ERAST, El Reg's Alien Spotting Telescope.

Elon Musk blasts off from OpenAI to focus on cars, how to make smart code fair, and more

MADDPG

Did no one else think "MAD PIG"?

The android icon needs a crazy gleam in its eyes, and a short, curly tail.

Stunning infosec tips from Uncle Sam, furries exposed, Chase bank web leak, and more

Re: The Reg hack forgot to research outside the fursuit.

You left off virtual furries, those that participate in online 3D virtual worlds using avatars that are anthropomorphised non human animals.

KFC: Enemy of waistlines, AI, arteries and logistics software

KFC can just use rabbit, like they have done before.

Facebook's big solution to combating election ad fraud: Snail mail

Re: Little of what they did was actually paid for advertising

"hired a hundred people who write English well"

fb peple what rite english gud r obvious trolls

Farts away! Plane makes unscheduled stop after man won't stop guffing

Just pipe the gas to the engines. End of problem.

A computer file system shouldn't lose data, right? Tell that to Apple

Re: Cutting back on features? Not exactly.

"ignore the general dishevellement of the staff"

Any decent IT department has disheveled staff before any fights over chocolate.

Re: Photo

"He seems panicky, she seems sort of glad. Which files were those?"

The article talks about a video file with undisclosed contents ...

Paris may know more.

BOFH: Turn your server rack hotspot to a server rack notspot

I keep trying to be more puerile, but my efforts keep turning to crap.

Re: new keyboard alert !

You are thinking of some other Aussie band for cheap wine.

Hands up who HASN'T sued Intel over Spectre, Meltdown chip flaws

Re: re: popcorn

"That popcorn will be a putrified mess before this gets settled."

In the same way that Intel seems to be able to concoct new hardware bugs all the time, I can keep making fresh batches of popcorn. I'm more worried about running out of flavours of soft drink to wash it down with, if I choose a different flavour for each law suite.

I'm gonna meltdown some butter over my popcorn, this'll be very entertaining.

If this laptop is so portable, where's the keyboard, huh? HUH?

Long ago the gubermit decided they would pay for one year of a two year basic computer course I didn't really need, coz I was already an experienced computer professional. I almost managed to get exemptions on 50% of the subjects.

One of the subjects was Basic Desktop Computing, or how to use Windows and Word. The lecturer, who knew I was an experienced computer professional, took me aside at the beginning of the first class, while every one else was getting settled, and asked me to teach her how to use a mouse.

Re: Luggable

Back in high school, I got to use one of the three IBM 5100 "portable" computers that circulated through all the schools in the state. It came with a bag that included a handle and a shoulder strap. I would wear the shoulder strap, grab the handle, and lean to one side to get that beast off the ground, before I walked to the next class. I am rather tall.

"Have you ever tried to lug a desktop computer"

Two desktop computers, one monitor, keyboard, mouse, assorted cables for them, three routers, one WiFi AP, and enough network cables for a large room full of geeks. In my large hybrid backpack, on the bus, every second Saturday. Sometimes would have to walk home if things lasted until after the buses stopped and I couldn't get a lift home.

HomePod, you say? Sex sex sex, that's all you think about

Re: Medication warnings

My favourite, and I see this way too often, is "may cause the symptoms you are taking the medication to alleviate".

Ubuntu wants to slurp PCs' vital statistics – even location – with new desktop installs

I'm not a big fan of laptops, I don't own any. I build my desktops out of carefully selected parts, but I always neglect to buy any parts with the Microsoft logo on them. Even the two computers I bought whole instead of building from parts didn't come with Windows.

Re: I wonder if

"we, as computer users and purchasers of software, hardware or service, should start charging these data collection businesses $/£/€ 1 for every gigabyte they want off us?"

FTFY

"what, you're concerned about downvotes? I get those ALL the time. It's just my fan club. And the howler monkeys."

So far I think most of my downvotes have come from prudes and Windows fanbois. I can live with that.

Where's the Paris Penguin icon?

Or proxy it.

I have public mirror of Devuan on my overseas server, and my ISP has a public mirror of Debian, which is quota free for me. Since most of Devuan is unadulterated Debian, some of the mirrors just redirect to Debian mirrors for those parts. I proxy most of my web stuff through that overseas server. It has a special rule to redirect requests for Debian packages that come from my home IP, to my ISPs Debian mirror. I'm fairly sure my ISP knows what my home IP is. They can probably guess what my servers IP is, but I don't care.

Re: User needs

'TL;DR Stop making ageist assumptions. And put the apostrophes in "don't" and "won't".'

And get off our lawn!

Re: Sounds like Windows

"But I will finally settle with anything Devuan based when it all gains some more momentum."

Apparently the beta release of Devuan ASCII is quite a popular download, and it was only released a couple of days ago.

Disclaimer - I run one of the Devuan mirrors.

Re: Bugs?

'users could insect their own data'

"I think I've found the problem."

Probably the same one that down voted my original down voted you to. Have an up vote to compensate.

I'm guessing the thumb down was from someone that didn't spot the joke. I should be more generous with icons in the future.

Apple to devs: Code for the iPhone X or nothing from April onwards

Re: We develop for Apple and Android

"Mmmm.... not convinced our app runs that well on a washing machine. It does require a touch interface and a GPS unit. If we can find a washing machine that has this, we'll try and port it across."

Considering that Google insists on having GPS turned on for their Daydream VR, which only tracks head rotation, not movement, and thus is only suitable for sit down games, wouldn't surprise me at all to find GPS in a large device that only sits in your laundry.

On the other hand, if you load your washing machine wrong, it'll vibrate like crazy and might start walking. The GPS is so you can find it if it walked too far.

I'll hazard a guess that the deadline date is April 1st.

Magic Leap's staggering VR goggle technology just got even better!

Re: optional

"Considering the popularity of Machine Learning these days, why not sell investors on an ML system to discriminate between real and scam investments? When you run off with their money you can always claim you were training it."

Add blockchain and you are on a winner.

Re: google is evil

Facebook is the one that bought Oculus, not Google.

Google has several VR products and technologies, Google Cardboard, Google Daydream, etc.

These products are out in the market place, I own one from Oculus, and one from Google.

Try to avoid tripping over those voxels in your holodeck.

Hate to ruin your day, but... Boffins cook up fresh Meltdown, Spectre CPU design flaw exploits

Re: Oh that's just great

'Ever heard the phrase, "There are some things Man was not meant to know"?'

What it's like to be pregnant is a thing Man was not meant to know, but I'm sure science will sort that out soon enough.

Arrrgh! Put down the crisps! 'Ultra-processed' foods linked to cancer!

Having made bread in a dutch oven, you would then cut the cheese to make a sanga.

Stephen Elop and the fall of Nokia revisited

Re: Why can't Elop take credit for his achievement?

"So is Darwin based Apple Watch OS really UNIX then ?

"As the XNU kernel is hybrid BSD/Mach and OSX is Unix 03 certified, so my iPhone is actually a UNIX phone."

I've been saying for many years that Unix won the computer wars long ago, just no one told Microsoft. Android, BSD, Linux, Mac OS and iOS, even Blackberry's QNX, all Unix variants. Every now and then Microsoft adds a bit of some sort of Unix to Windows, they'll get there eventually.

Re: Why can't Elop take credit for his achievement?

"No, it's not recognisable linux. It's based on some bits of core linux buried deep under layers of noxious cruft."

The post I was replying to didn't say anything about recognisable Linux, just Linux. When I posted that I went looking through my Android phone, and saw things like dnsmasq, it has more Linux in it than my Linux based router. Was surprised actually, no idea why dnsmasq is needed in a phone.

Some people might make the same argument about $(your most hated Linux distro) and $(your most hated DE / WM), some bits of core Linux buried deep under layers of noxious cruft.