* Posts by ActionBeard

20 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Apr 2018

Config cockup leaves Reg reader reaching for the phone

ActionBeard

Re: Fat fingers.

Given how many times I've seen files called "more" or "pg" over the years, you're definitely not the only one.

I got caught out many years by typing "last | reboot" instead of "last reboot". I wondered for a moment why it was taking so long to get back to me....

Who knew that hosing a table with copious amounts of cubic metres would trip adult filters?

ActionBeard

Re: Titter ye not names

For an album release in 2012, Susan Boyle's marketing people used the phrase "Susan album party" as the basis for an advertising tagline and came up with the Twitter hashtag #susanalbumparty

I believe it was modified shortly afterwards.

Dutch Gateway store was kept udder wraps for centuries until refit dug up computing history

ActionBeard

When I first saw the headline I thought it was a reference to Gateway supermarkets, for whom I worked in the 80s (it was a Fine Fare when I started work there).

Will Police Scotland use real-time discrimination-happy face-recog tech? Senior cop tells us: We won't... for now

ActionBeard

Re: PC Murdoch was nae so bad

Nowadays Oor Wullie would get tasered. That would make his hair even more spiky.

Another rewrite for 737 Max software as cosmic bit-flipping tests glitch out systems – report

ActionBeard

Re: This is strange an frightening.

McDonnell Douglas

Hell hath no fury like a radar engineer scorned

ActionBeard
Holmes

Re: Can this inform the 5G debate?

Pataphysical, I believe.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2005/dec/09/8

Not very bright: Apple geniuses spend two weeks, $10,000 of repairs on a MacBook Pro fault caused by one dumb bug

ActionBeard

Yup. In my first job in IT - which was 1990 - I supported Pick systems. All user access was via dumb terminals. A colleague asked out loud one day "what do you do if you try to log in but there's no response and the screen is completely blank?". Someone ten feet away repled "turn the brightness up".

Essex named sexiest British accent followed closely by, um, Glaswegian

ActionBeard

Robbie Coltrane did a thing on TV many years ago where he reeled off about 5 different Glasgow accents in quick succession. I've looked on YouTube for it but so far, haven't found it.

ActionBeard

Which Glaswegian accent do they mean though? There are about half a dozen that I can think of.

Is that a stiffy disk in your drive... or something else entirely?

ActionBeard

Re: SD cards

We've had an iMac at home for the last 8 years or so, during which time there has been much swearing and gnashing of teeth at the USB ports round the back. However about a week ago I installed a RAM upgrade in it*. While working on the machine I noticed that our fancy apple keyboard (USB-connected with built-in numeric keypad) also features not one but two USB ports - one on the left and one on the right. This is great but if only I'd found them sooner - would have saved years of huffing and sweary words.

*gone from 4GB to 12GB - it's so fast now, it's like night and day

Sure, we've got a problem but we don't really want to spend any money on the tech guy you're sending to fix it

ActionBeard

Nice -> Monaco

I went to Monaco on a business trip several years ago and yes, the helicopter from Nice cost about the same as a taxi. A colleague who had been before recommended taking the helicopter - and with me being a bit of an aviation nerd who had never flown in a helicopter before, this sounded ideal. My BA flight from London was late and I finally landed at Nice about midnight, by which time the desk for the helicopter company was closed. The only option was to get a taxi to my hotel. The motorway was closed thanks to roadworks, so the driver took some obscure country back roads and we descended into Monte Carlo from the hills. It was a spectacular drive. Also it wasn't cheap - about 90 Euros, which used up the 100 in cash that I'd brought "to get me through the first couple of days" (ah, how little I knew).

What happens when security devices are insecure? Choose the nuclear option

ActionBeard

We were shown the Protect and Survive video at school in the early 80s. Then we were shown some videos of atomic bomb tests. In one, a building which was within about a mile of the blast, was blown away as if it was a small pile of sand. The teacher, being slightly cynical in nature, made the comment: "notice the doors propped up against the tables".

From hard drive to over-heard drive: Boffins convert spinning rust into eavesdropping mic

ActionBeard

Re: Extra Security...

Reminds me of when, as a child, I managed to get a peanut stuck in one ear. My mum knew an old trick - she inserted some chocolate into the ear and the nut came out a treat.

(Works better when spoken out loud, rather than in writing.)

Users fail to squeak through basic computer skills test. Well, it was the '90s

ActionBeard

Re: Not sure...

An HP Pavilion laptop of mine had cava spilled on its keyboard, and it worked fine once it had dried out a bit. I was using one of those saucer-type champagne glasses - they seemed a good idea at the time.

Postmates plans rollout of autonomous delivery robots in US

ActionBeard

Yup, I have so many questions about this. What would it do if you're not in when it calls? Does it just leave the item at your front door, or attempt to leave it in a safe place, or deliver to a neighbour?

Send printer ink, please. More again please, and fast. Now send it faster

ActionBeard

Re: There are so many extarordinary stories

I have just had a suit made. The trousers have a button fly and no belt loops, so can only be worn with braces. The only braces I have are red. I think it looks amazing and in no way do I resemble a reject from Rainbow. I might accessorise the suit with a Ford XR3i or mark 2 Golf GTI.

Apple's magical quality engineering strikes again: You may want to hold off that macOS High Sierra update...

ActionBeard

Re: No issues here

Thanks for posting this - I have recently installed Reason on a MacBook and have been trying it out.

There is no perceived IT generation gap: Young people really are thick

ActionBeard

Re: Teletypes and Moogs

They are indeed a "thing" again - you can buy a new Minimoog, if you have a spare few thousand.

https://www.moogmusic.com/

ActionBeard

I remember Fizzy Lizzies - they were a staple from the ice cream van that used to come round our street 2-3 times of an evening.