Posts by MrReynolds2U

£127M wasted on failed UK nuclear cleanup plan

Also, it appears that the alternate plan will still cost the earth but only provide a lab until 2040.

The scrapped plan was to provide facilities until 2070, so was it actually better value?

Ship abandoned off Alaska after electric cars on board catch fire

Re: Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road

Here you go: Diesel Particulate Filter - DPFs explained by the RAC

Fedora 42 now an official Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distro

Re: way out of line here, but...

For me, the strength comes from being able to develop in Visual Studio and run either under Windows or WSL from the same IDE. YMMV.

When running the WSL console it's also 99% like using SSH to a Linux box (or VM) without necessarily needing to have one available that you can break as you like.

Docker? No thanks.

Soviet probe from 1972 set to return to Earth ... in May 2025

Re: If it lands on Trump...

Definitely wins comment of the week

Trump admin freaks out over mere suggestion Amazon was going to show tariff impact on prices

Re: We're all mad here

"... reduce the budget deficit (by reducing taxes) ..."

Did any of them understand that reducing taxes would increase the deficit unless they also slashed spending?

Uncle Sam kills funding for CVE program. Yes, that CVE program

Re: Reasoning

We do pay. We buy US hardware, software and services. These US companies pay taxes and pay their employees. Hence our money moves into the US economy and the US budget. This money is then used for programs like this.

Windows 2000 Server named peak Microsoft. Readers say it's all been downhill since Clippy

Re: From a home-user perspective, Windows 7 remains the best overall OS

I only ever had slow booting 2k if the DNS was misconfigured. That was in the order of half an hour before the domain server brought up the desktop. Corrected the DNS and rebooted, back up in under 2 minutes. My HP DL-380 (and relations) spend longer in the pre-boot stage.

GCHQ intern took top secret spy tool home, now faces prison

Re: Official Secrets Act?

You mean like RSA?

Crypto takes a dip as Trump signs Bitcoin Reserve order

Fees

Don't forget that no crypto currency transaction takes place without fees. So you can't just swap back and forth since you will lose a percentage every time.

Oh Brother. Printer giant denies dirty toner tricks as users cry foul

Kyocera (7/10)

I bought a colour one for the office and it's great... except when it decides the new non-OEM cartridge is empty. I suspect it's the chips on the cartridges sometimes, not necessarily the printer. But it has made me question buying Kyocera in the future. It has also got to the stage where it eats paper occasionally. I miss my (very) old HP lasers.

New Outlook marches onto Windows 10 for what little time it has left

Re: SOP

Here's the thing though: Outlook was the killer part of Office for many people. Word etc has plenty of workable clones but Outlook was without peer once upon a time.

They don't seem to realise that this push away from Classic Outlook will actually harm their subscriptions.

Techie fluked a fix and found himself the abusive boss's best friend

Introduction to PHP

I was once asked to help out an affiliate at an old employer.

The affiliate's code was in PHP which I'd never used before but I was able to understand enough to find numerous errors in a few hours and fixed it for them. Typical offshore code written with assumptions and no thought of "what would happen if?"

Like most languages I know now, I picked up enough in a few hours to understand the code but like a golfer, I'll spend the rest of my life actually trying to be good at it.

Windows 95 setup was three programs in a trench coat, Microsoft vet reveals

Re: Copied the CD to HDD

Yep. Format and copy i386? Then run setup.exe

Installed in less than 20 minutes.

Microsoft hijacks keyboard shortcut to bring Copilot to your attention

Not that I have any plans to use it

But why not use WIN+C ??

My only experience of Copilot so far has been to Uninstall it on any PC I touch.

Raspberry Pi 500 and monitor arrive in time for Christmas

Re: Keyboard layout

ISTR that in telecoms we used to refer to the hash as "gate". So you had star and gate keys on your telephone keypad. Not sure if that was a common name or more of a colloquial thing.

Veteran Microsoft engineer shares some enterprise support tips

Been the problem myself before

I once phoned up Virgin after a new install because the router wasn't seeing the internet.

I was adamant that everything was plugged in.

It was, but I had plugged the WAN line into a LAN socket and vice versa.

The tech on the other end was very understanding.

Tech support chap showed boss how to use a browser for a year – he still didn't get it

Re: When managers get involved in technical stuff - beware!

Tell me it wasn't called Proclaim. I get shudders when that gets mentioned.

Mozilla Foundation crumbles as third of staff cast off

Re: AI research or Thunderbird?

Indeed. The marketing term AI is, like all marketing-led initiatives in software, vapourware.

Scientists demonstrate X-rays as a way to zap asteroids out of Earth's path

Re: Doesn't scale

The article didn't mention the time required for the beam to have an effect. Was it instantaneous?

If not, space objects have a habit of rotating which might dissipate the effect.

(I can't remember if it's effect or affect above).

UK elevates datacenters to critical national infrastructure status

opening paragraph

If we lose the apostrophe in "CrowdStrike's" we can use it as a noun for particular type of attack or failure.

We could even quantify it in the Reg Standards. If we think of it as amount of infrastructure taken offline, sub-units could be some of: a new MCSE, Molly-guard failure, expired TLS cert, expired domain name, a MS Quality Update, NPM dependency malware, under-sea cable damage, BGP cock-up, EMP. Other suggestions welcome.

Cyber crooks shut down UK, US schools, thousands of kids affected

Re: Prevent kindergarteners

Often the opening windows were accompanied by cast iron radiators that were either off or burned your skin on contact.

TikTok isn't protected by Section 230 in 10-year-old’s ‘blackout challenge’ death

Same here

I used to go into the pub next door to my school occasionally when I had a gap in the day. We'd play pool and have a pint.

The unwritten rule was that you had to take your school tie off first. That way you were just someone wearing a shirt and trousers.

It made the Maths lesson on return to school a lot more fun.

Japan stops measuring train crowding by ease of newspaper readership

Upside

There is a sweet spot around 150% to 200% on Northern Rail where you can still breathe but the conductor cannot move through the carriage so your journey doesn't require a ticket.

Dell starts new round of layoffs while it looks to 'unlock modern AI'

Stock options

Can someone please explain how they are allowed to take your stock options off you while pushing you out of the door?

Chrome Web Store warns end is nigh for uBlock Origin

Re: Be Brave

I recently switched from Opera to Brave on my personal devices and I'm very happy with it. Linked bookmarks and passwords work well.

However, lusers in work insist upon using Chrome. I'm considering switching them all to Brave and using a Chrome icon because they probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Hello? Emergency services? I'd like to report a wrong number

Well if you use something like Asterisk (VoIP), it's entirely up to you how to set it up. There are no presumptions.

When I set up phone systems however I usually combine my own tests with that of the network provider.

So, one would be that I will do test calls to (9)999 and (9)112 (both with and without the prefix). Plus I'll direct (9)911 to the real local emergency number.

The providers I use insist that you have run these tests before signing off on completion of the system.

Here we go again with more AI crime prediction for policing

Future crime?

I want my minority report.

Tesla that killed motorcyclist was in Full Self-Driving mode

Re: Heck; I can't even trust my Volvo

From my experience and those who have been hurt, active lane assist is the most dangerous thing on modern cars.

It needs to be eradicated, not made mandatory and defaulted to on.

Amazon, you will do a total recall of bad stuff sold through your site, watchdog barks

Re: Here in the UK

I bought a spare laptop charger for my Lenovo from the souk. It looked almost identical to the OEM adaptor but when plugged in I could feel a slight charge on the lid of the laptop. Ceased using but didn't get around to sending back.

Amazon used to be a good place to find cheaper OEM stuff but now it's all character soup named Chinese companies. I used to think that they were probably made in the same factory and just badged differently. Then I realised if that was the case, they were probably items that failed QA. Either way, l avoid like the plague now.

Microsoft's Azure networking takes a worldwide tumble

It's always DNS <\sarc>

Kamala Harris's $7M support from LinkedIn founder comes with a request: Fire Lina Khan

Re: Microsoft board member requests FTC chair being removed - pays money to upcoming president

Since the money was donated to a PAC, that's not directly a donation to her but to a theoretically separate group. Direct donations to politicians are limited in value IIRC.

I don't think adverts by PACs and super PACs carry an endorsement from the candidate and therefore aren't a binding policy announcement. Often they are attack ads.

Obviously as a right-pondian I may be wrong and am happy to be corrected.

I seem to remember the figure of $2B being banded about in regards to Barak's first run and I don't know if that included PACs or direct donations.

Kia Niro electric vehicle defies physics with record-breaking 114 million miles on the clock

Re: On the other hand ...

Could it be that the wiring connector is missing the permanent live and instead using the ignition live, so resetting every time.

As a test, can you turn the radio on when the ignition is off / keys out (don't know if you have physical keys).

There is no honor among RAM thieves – but sometimes there is karma

Sounds familiar

Back in the early days of my career I worked at a Computer Repair outfit in South Wales (capitalisation intended). Apparently when the boss came in one morning a customer machine was waiting to be rebuilt and he took it upon himself to replace the RAM and get it ready to go out.

When my colleagues came in he reported that the machine had a faulty motherboard and RAM. They checked and saw that he had forced the RAM in the wrong way around. I didn't know it was possible to do that but apparently with enough force you can get a DIMM in that way but it has a catastrophic effect. He denied this had happened but stopped helping out in the repair shop afterwards.

He wasn't incapable, in fact he'd started the business doing all roles but somewhere along the way he'd lost the attention to detail required to do it properly.

New Outlook set for GA despite missing some key features

Re: "Block extract text"

Yep, I've dropped an email to corrections@

The once I did try new Outlook it failed to transfer my email accounts across and I went straight back. They might have fixed that now but they really shouldn't be releasing it to "try" if such basic functionality isn't working. I suppose I'll give it another look on a VM so I don't screw up my system again.

Speed limiters arrive for all new cars in the European Union

Re: Good

The Vauxhall Frontera was notorious for being top heavy and there was opinion that some of the LandRover family had the same tendencies but I found them quite planted.

Asda kisses Walmart goodbye with half a billion dollar tech breakup bill

PTerry

It's Excel all the way down.

Julian Assange to go free in guilty plea deal with US

What will this judgement mean for journalism?

If we look only at the release of classified files etc (not at the allegations of sexual misconduct), then the outcome is still unsettling. Why? Because a supposed journalist is being forced/coerced into admitting espionage crimes in order to be free.

I do not know how he came to be in possession of said files, or if he coerced or instructed Manning etc to divulge said files.

I make no observations of him as a person, but if journalists are still under threat of espionage charges, this sets a dangerous precident that could affect journalism and those who seek to share the truth in the future.

This reminds me of the very excellent Sorkin series "The Newsroom" which features a related storyline.

Mozilla is trying to push me out because I have cancer, CPO says in bombshell lawsuit

Re: WTF?

For one thing: death in service benefits or life insurance etc based upon average earnings. Although the insurance side would likely be calculated at time of diagnosis.

I have a feeling that the treatment costs have been making a large dent in the family savings and, like any loving parent/spouse, you want to make sure your family are in a decent position to take care of themselves when the inevitable happens.

Plus there's the professional aspect: if your mind is still working, you want to use that and not fade away.

T-Mobile US drags New Jersey borough to court over school cell tower permit denial

Re: TMobile is correct, but...

the problem with stupid is they would say "look how bad it's making us feel and it's not even turned on yet!"

McDonald's not lovin' its AI drive-thru experiment with IBM

Yet another attempt to lessen the salary burden by this time removing a bunch of 16 year olds. I hope this AI vapourware dies a death very soon.

Governments should be pointing out the flaws in this process lest they be left with massive unemployment and surging welfare costs.

The AI pushers would have you believe we'll all have much more leisure time, but you can't afford leisure if you're unemployed.

At this rate, the only people left with jobs will be the coloured pencil department.

Asda IT staff shuffled off to TCS amid messy tech divorce from Walmart

This was always going to be the way.

The brothers owning Asda was hailed as a success of British entrepreneurship but never likely to benefit the consumer. I suspect it was a way to force leveraged debt into a recognisable brand, but I may be wrong.

The UK retail sector for supermarkets and "express" shops is continuing to combine like sports shops did (and that left us with Sports Direct).

Sadly the origins of Tesco and Morrisons are very much gone and the brands are shadows of their founder's aims.

I spoke with employees at a local Morrisons petrol station the other day about MFG taking over and they are all transferring back to Morrisons rather than taking the TUPE option.

The enshittification continues.

Techie installed 'user attitude readjustment tool' after getting hammered in a Police station

I regularly go out with a tool kit that could be used to build an extension, but there's always one tool I've left in the shed that I find myself needing. Which is probably why I have multiples of some tools.

Spam blocklist SORBS closed by its owner, Proofpoint

RATS-NoPtr

Currently listed. No option to remove since the entire range (C block) is on their "Worst Offender List". SOOL but it's only one list.

(and yes there is a Reverse DNS entry)

And then there's UCEPROTECT who just toggle me on and off when they feel like it.

I'm not sure about Ionos but Azure have a habit of blocking outgoing SMTP ports from VMs and I don't think they are alone in that.

You can use something like SendGrid to get around it but you shouldn't have to.

A thump with the pointy end of a screwdriver will fix this server! What could possibly go wrong?

Re: Technical Terminology

I like the term "police master key" for MoE kit.

IT infrastructure scared away potential buyers of struggling e-commerce site

I prefer gummy bears myself. They often get handed out at running events too. Good to give your glucose a boost through a race.

Tape is so dead, 152.9 EB of LTO media shipped last year

Re: Long-lived contracts

Could you honestly say that _any_ legal documents are actually written in plain text?

'Little weirdo' shoulder surfer teaches UK cabinet minister a lesson in cybersecurity

Re: Pride

That, my friend is why spoiled votes are counted.

And then there's our old friends The Monster Raving Looney Party, which have been somewhat usurped by the main political parties fielding questionable candidates lately.

UK law gives green light to self-driving cars from 2026

The liability clause is excellent forethought.

But does it cover this:

Self-Driving Car: "Ooh that looks bad! You're about to hit someone in 1 second, Dave. Relinquishing controls. You have the con."

Dave: "Me? But, you were driving?"

Self-Driving Car: "Not at the point of impact. Oh, and that means their death was your responsibility ;)"

Dating apps kiss'n'tell all sorts of sensitive personal info

Re: Original Intent

I remember talking to industry people in the late 90s and they were certain that information was the next big commodity. The idea probably goes back further. I'm my experience websites were set up to either provide a service, make money, provide (dis) information or a combination.

Some dating sites probably were originally set up to provide a service to wannabe daters. Somewhere along the way they switched to providing a service to those interested in their customer's data.