* Posts by DoctorPaul

237 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jul 2018

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Engine cover flies from Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 during takeoff

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Re: There is a joke here, somewhere

Ah, Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters - that takes me back!

UK skies set for cheeky upgrade with hybrid airship

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Re: Really???

Years ago visiting from the UK and heading north from Toronto was rather taken aback by the sign outside a town saying something like "ThisTown welcomes the cottagers".

Double whammy is that I'm pretty sure that the notice was on behalf of the local Baptist church!

Google's AI-powered search results are loaded with spammy, scammy garbage

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Qwant anyone?

Many thanks to the commentard who recommended qwant some time ago.

Been my default search in Firefox for a while and I must say that I get the results that I want at the top of the list pretty much every time.

3 million doors open to uninvited guests in keycard exploit

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Re: The entire industry is a mess

Ah yes, pretty sure it was a Formula One in France that gave my partner and I an "interesting" experience many years ago, probably the 90s.

It was a completely automated affair, no staff on site at all, well certainly in the evening. You turned up at the front door and used a control panel to pay by credit card whereupon you received a paper printout with room number and key code.

Great. Payment made, code received and off we go to the room. Door opens fine with the code, only problem is that there's a bloke asleep in the bed!

No staff remember, so sorting that out via an entry phone intercom at night was an interesting exercise. Turns out the guy was working at the hotel as a decorator and someone had put him up in the room but obviously without putting the information into the booking system. Pretty crap system to allow that but I guess that it was cutting edge in the 90s.

What strange beauty is this? Microsoft commits to two more non-subscription Office editions

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Re: Upgrade? Not me…

I thought that I was OK with a "perpetual" copy of Office 2010.

Then M$ switched off the activation servers.

The end of classic Outlook for Windows is coming. Are you ready?

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What is this Outlook of which you speak?

Been using PCs since the early 80s, from BBC Micro via OS/2 to all versions of Windows up to Win10 (and I only moved there from Win7 a few weeks ago).

Never in my life have I used Outlook, a statement that will remain true until my dying breath. I think that my first remote access to email was via a 300baud modem from my BBC to the university *nix box, then when personal email became a thing Eudora did me just fine for years before I finally moved to Thunderbird.

That said, all my desktop email these days is done using the Roundcube web client and 3 quid a month to Mythic Beasts for hosting. Never, ever use the ISP provided email!

Apple's Titan(ic) iCar project is dead as self-driving dream fails to materialize

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Re: I don't get it either

Which is why I'm sticking with my 1989 BMW E30 cabrio that I've owned for over 20 years.

When I first owned it I was living in central London so the automatic gearbox was a real benefit in that sort of traffic. And then I taught myself to left foot brake which is relatively straightforward with only two pedals, and that half-second quicker on the brakes definitely saved me from a massive coming together with a white van some years ago.

Former Post Office boss returns CBE to sender over computer system scandal

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Re: A scandal of epic proportions

Went online to send a parcel via Royal Mail recently but went to postoffice.co.uk due to a bit of brain fade.

They no longer offer Royal Mail delivery, just crap like Evri. Sad really.

Revamped Raspberry Pi OS boasts Wayland desktop and improved imager tool

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They broke VNC

Got a handful of Pi's and all of them run headless.

Default for this is VNC but it doesn't work with Wayland - "maybe next year".

So it's back to the legacy version for now.

‘How not to hire a North Korean plant posing as a techie’ guide updated by US and South Korean authorities

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Re: Best code ever!

But did it work?

Casino giant Caesars tells thousands: Yup, ransomware crooks stole your data

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an outsourced IT support vendor

Didn't need to read beyond that really

You snooze, you lose? It's not quite as simple as that

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According to my go-to fount of all knowledge (QI on the BBC) this is a syndrome "suffered" by 1 in 500 people including the likes of Renée Descartes, who never got up before midday.

Now that I'm retired I typically go to bed between 2am and 3am and I'm never up before 10 in the morning. If I got up as soon as I woke, I would be up at 4 or 5 as sleep is more like a series of naps for me. That said, I reckon that I could nap for England!

Been like it all my life. I'm 71 now but as a teenager in the 60s I used to cycle to school about 2 miles away - had to be there by 9am but I would not be heading downstairs to grab breakfast any time before 8.30.

Excel recruitment time bomb makes top trainee doctors 'unappointable'

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Re: These things happen everywhere

Very much this.

My last gigs before retirement involved converting Access databases to MySQL with a web front end. The sort of Access databases (I use the term loosely) that people put together after their Excel spreadsheet has run out of steam and which in turn finally fell flat on their faces. Anyone ever noticed how Access fails just as things get really complicated, or is it just me?

Best example was when I was asked to make a small mod to an Access database that a new partner had brought in from his previous post. Obviously he hadn't written it or he could have changed it himself. I reminded the client that I had made it very clear that I only touched Access in order to get data out of it, but said that I would make an exception in this case.

Turns out that the mod was to remove the previous company's logo and replace it with the company's own logo. Simple enough, but when I deleted the "old" logo there was another logo from an even earlier company underneath! IP rights anyone?

For context, my client was a firm of consultants charged with the oversight of multi-billion pound projects. Don't want to be more specific than that, to protect the guilty.

Dyson moans about state of UK science and tech, forgets to suck up his own mess

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Re: With two-faced "friends" like Dyson, Britain doesn't need enemies

While the current royals don't have my support, I still prefer the idea of a constitutional monarchy over a republic and have always had a two word reason why - "President Thatcher".

BOFH: Ah. Company-branded merch. So much better than a bonus

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Re: When do people understand that cash rules?

Ha, amateur effort!

As a schoolchild in the 60s a friend and I got interested in making gunpowder. We realised that a "fine grind" was the thing to achieve, resulting in the construction of a small mill from Meccano, an Andrews Liver Salts tin and some marbles. Worked a treat. Only exploded once!

The results were placed in a pill bottle with wires from a toy train transformer joined with a sliver of cooking foil to act as a fuse. Screwing on the top meant that things went off with a very satisfying bang!

That said, I did hear the sound of a shard of glass flying past my ear, so was probably inches from losing an eye.

Brexit Britain looks to French company to save crumbling borders and immigration tech

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That anyone could downvote your simple statement of fact makes me want to weep.

For the hard of thinking, here's an example from within my family. My stepdaughter and her husband set up a business selling clothing online and over the years built it up into a multi-million pound enterprise. They actually stock and ship the stuff world-wide themselves rather than act as a middle man and are UK based.

Then came Brexit. They have tried everything, including setting up a subsidiary in Holland, but have had to give up selling directly to customers in the EU. Luckily they also supply a few retailers as well, so now they just refer potential customers on the continent to them.

The utter killer is the cost of returns. The business has been built on exemplary customer service, and honouring returns has been a big part of that. I can't remember the precise details but essentially they can't reclaim something like VAT or customs charges. So if a customer returns a £70 shirt it will cost them around £40 to process the return. You do the maths, you can't run a business on that basis.

CERN celebrates 30 years since releasing the web to the public domain

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Re: it changed software development

The age-old question I ask myself when someone walks towards me apparently talking to themselves - Bluetooth or schizophrenia?

Errors logged as 'nut loose on the keyboard' were – ahem – not a hardware problem

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Re: Aaaaargh!

Back in the 60s I was lucky enough to be taught the "Nuffield physics" A level rather than the regular syllabus.

This was based on the wonderful books by Richard Feynman and the whole point was to make you "think like a scientist". I can still remember one of the exam questions - "Design an experiment to measure the drag on a ship's hull". We'd never covered anything about that in the syllabus, the idea was that we'd been provided with the skills to tackle the problem.

Thanks for fixing the computer lab. Now tell us why we shouldn’t expel you?

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Re: old password

Back in the 90s I was the webmaster for god for a while, that is the Global Online Directory at www.god.co.uk

Baidu sues Apple and anyone else in sight over ERNIE chatbot fakes

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Re: ERNIE

Upvote for the Morecambe and Wise reference!

Of course Facebook will monetize an ad-generating AI

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Joke

At last a use case!

It's beginning to look like these systems are only any good for replacing advertisers and lawyers.

Hang on, did I just discover an upside to all this?

Tesla Semi, out since December, already facing a recall over brakes

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1989 BMW owner here, you certainly know when that handbrake goes AWOL. Mind you, the sound of the cable rubbing on the propshaft should have been a clue!

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

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Windows

Re: "NEVER SWITCH OFF"

I'm getting that way with my Raspberry Pi's, but that's probably just old age.

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Just for the education of the younger readers out there, can anyone specify how much a (say) 10 minute call to Australia from the UK would have cost in the 1960s compared to the average wage?

Seem to recall that the call had to be booked beforehand as well.

Ex-politico turned Meta hype man brands Metaverse 'new heart of computing'

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I mean, if the visuals were up to the standard of most computer games from the last 20 years or so, then maybe just maybe there would be a use case.

What Meta came up with is great if you want to live in a virtual Pingu universe, but the Next Big Thing? Please.

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Re: They should ask Elon

You mean apart from the ones they have produced but no-one wants?

Version 100 of the MIT Lisp Machine software recovered

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Re: The Forgotten Fifth Generation

I did my PhD in expert systems in the late 80s at the University of Brighton (as opposed to Sussex where I did my degree), anyone remember POP11?

I added a capability to RBFS, the Rule Based Frame System, which I still think is the best named software I've ever developed - it was the Truth Maintenance System.

Nostalgic for VB? BASIC is anything but dead

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Nothing but a toy

I started coding using BBC Basic, moved on to Turbo Pascal, then bought Delphi on the day that it shipped in the UK (Windows95 show in London?)

That showed up VB for the toy that it was - you dropped a component on a form and the code appeared, change some code and the component updated itself. Magic!

B-List celebs including Lindsay Lohan fined after crypto shill probe

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Re: Hope & Change

Do you mean modern beat combo?

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Re: Adviced advice adviced

Recently discovered Within Temptation and happy as a pig in the proverbial exploring 25 years of back catalogue.

Tails 5.11: Secure-surfing 'amnesiac' live distro arrives

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Worth reading just for

a Bitcoin wallet for the terminally gullible

Winnie the Pooh slasher flick mysteriously cancelled in Hong Kong

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No, it's obviously because Pooh is a master of the Tao, and the followers of Confucius *really* don't like that!

Cisco kindly reveals proof of concept attacks for flaws in rival Netgear's kit

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Re: 1970s museum pieces?

Upvote for "unassisted porcine aviation"

Lenovo Thinkpad X13s: The stealth Arm-powered laptop

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I refer you to Elite running in kilobytes of RAM on the BBC Micro

Catholic clergy surveillance org 'outs gay priests'

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Re: Prigs

That's why I tend to Cathar beliefs - "never trust a Church that needs bishops and their ilk"

Tech demo takes brain scan, creates a picture of what you're looking at

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Re: Finally

Upvote for the Allo Allo reference

Don't worry, that system's not actually active – oh, wait …

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Re: Change window - cue the drums

Here in the UK "cash & carry" is a type of outlet.

Typically a warehouse on an industrial estate selling food and cleaning products and not open to the general public. Users are hotels, guest houses, cafes etc.

DoctorPaul Bronze badge

Re: Why would one ...

I make my "proper" coffee in an electric "Italian cafetiere" where the water is forced through the coffee grounds as it boils. Don't ask me why but I find it tastes much better than a "french cafetiere" where the water and grounds just mix, or a filter coffee which gives me a bad stomach while I can drink cappuccinos all day no problem.

Most Italian cafetieres are non-electric stove top devices and for some reason the electric ones are almost impossible to source in the UK. I got my previous Bialetti on Amazon via Bulgaria if I recall correctly.

Versions now seem available as "Moka pots" as well. Instead of watching a stove top boil, just put in the water and coffee, switch it on and walk away. Keeps the coffee warm for up to 30 mins after it's been made as well.

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Re: Why would one ...

Reminds me of touring holidays in France in the 80s, if they did make tea it was with warm water, yuk!

Hot water was only possible by boiling a pan. I still remember seeing a kettle in a shop window in France back then - complete with large illustrated poster explaining what it was and how it worked.

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Re: Why would one ...

Must be true, I love Twiglets and hate Marmite - go figure.

What's really up with data disconnects in the deep blue sea?

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Re: Excellent opinion piece

I think it's more a case of whose facts, so many alternate truths out there these days. /s

PC tech turns doctor to diagnose PC's constant crashes as a case of arthritis

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Re: South don't work in the North

Reminds me of the "gate" poem from Knots by R D Laing

Go to security school, GoTo – theft of encryption keys shows you need it

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Re: LastPass

Which is why I spent time last week installing vaultwarden on a spare Pi.

FAA grounds all US departures after NOTAM goes down

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Re: "but which aren't known about enough in advance to publicize by other means"

Upvote for "the professionally offended" - a phrase that perfectly sums up my feelings, especially as they are usually offended on someone else's behalf.

Corporations start testing Windows 11 in bigger numbers. Good luck

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Not only did Microshaft fail to offer Win10 users the option of a "classic shell" with a Win7 look, they actively sabotaged the efforts of those who tried to offer users that very thing. The hubris and sheer bloody-mindedness just beggars belief.

I've been using PCs since the BBC Micro and am still on Win7 - I've tried Win10 a couple of times and I simply cannot bear to look at it. I swear that those sharp corners actually hurt my eyes and the flat colours remind me of the bad old days of 256 colours being your limit. I may be retired but I still spend 6 - 12 hours a day looking at my PC's screens (6, count 'em) so I think that it's extremely important that what I'm looking at offends the eye as little as possible.

I must admit that I haven't checked whether the classic skin developers have managed to get back ahead of M$ in the last year or two, but even if they did I'm not sure that I could live with the update debacle in Win10 - at least with Win7 I can choose when and if to download updates. That's due to end in a couple of weeks of course :-(

I've been running Mint on other boxes for quite a few years now, so maybe I will finally make the jump.

It's a reflection of how crap Win10 is that, faced with a choice between Win7 without updates and Win10, I'm sticking with Win7.

Techies try to bypass damaged UPS, send 380V into air traffic system

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Re: Critical

Similar happened to me some decades ago, I was already doing WFH in the 80s so luckily was at home when it happened.

It being water ingress to the wiring in the street which I think put another live phase on to my neutral. All I know is that the whole house started to hum and every standby light lit up like a Christmas tree. Cue a sprint to the fuse box (no fuses blew) to throw the main switch, if the house had been unoccupied I shudder to think what would have happened to the wiring.

Southwest Airlines blames IT breakdown for stranding holiday travelers

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Re: Outdated scheduling software?

Absolutely.

When I did my PhD in expert systems in the 80s, recalculating flight schedules was one of the classic problems that we were trying to crack.

Too big to live, too loved to die: Big Tech's billion dollar curse of the free

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Totally agree that people should get their own domains.

I've lost count of the number of vans (20-30k value?) and lorries (100k+?) for small businesses where the expensively signwritten details include a Hotmail or btconnect email address.

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Re: A couple of solutions, offered for free.

Personally I pay Mythic Beasts three quid a month for basic web hosting just to use for my email. Catch-all redirection means one mailbox but effectively infinite number of addresses, blacklisting specific addresses is easy, webmail is available and the performance just blows tsoHost out of the water. I spent a good part of last year moving people's accounts from tso to Mythic, and with the same mailbox running in different Firefox tabs for the different servers the difference in performance was "enlightening".

BBC is still struggling with the digital switch, says watchdog

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Re: We have a commervial version of the BBC.

Fingers crossed that particular stupid idea has been canned. Other stupid ideas are available.

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