Posts by MrMerrymaker

Transport Scotland has £47m to drag its traffic management systems into the 21st century

Re: Let's hope

One thumb down from a stoat the baw

Let's hope

They don't spend all of it on some crap consultant.

You know the drill

Some wee firm ay bampots tekin em fir a wee ride

From cash machines to commercial kitchen appliances, Doom really will run on almost anything

Come Get Some was Duke Nukem...

IDDQD

Brit Salesforce exec Gavin Patterson becomes transfer target for controversial European Super League

Makes sense

Someone from Salesforce would be behind selling out..

Unity devs warned of breaking changes ahead in video game engine as team gets to grips with mutating face of .NET

Oh No

NOT UNITY

*balls of hay tumble by*

Average convicted British computer criminal is young, male, not highly skilled, researcher finds

Re: Sampling problem: that's only the people that got caught

More deets PLz

Yahoo! Answers! will! be! wiped! from! the! internet! next! month!

Funny

Answers was really funny though. The absolutely basic questions people would ask. Then immatediely descending into abuse.

Of course, now there's everything else for that remit

Xiaomi grows fast, warns chip shortages will impact product releases

Happening everywhere

Same reason Sony have a PS5 shortage, and numerous other tech companies.

I like Xiaomi. They do good pens.

Phones are generally great too. Though I use the Xiaomi.eu debloated firmware, the default level of packed in crap apps is a bit high.

Linux Mint users in hot water for being slow with security updates, running old versions

Check out the dude who thinks Windows updates make for reliability!

UK watchdog fines two firms £270k for cold-calling 531,000 people who had opted out

Speak to the service provider

One thing I manage, though not with spoofs..

Truecaller and sundry other apps will show the company hosting the number you're calling from..

Ive had about half a dozen times when I've rang that provider - usually UK based telcos, leasing out numbers to a company who are the scammers - and basically politely but sternly read em the rights and advised they're in for it when it's clear their customer has broken their contract.

Sometimes I've been thanked, sometimes nothing back. But a decent amount of times, the number I captured stops working.

I do resent having to go to such mad lengths though.

Jail time for directors

Draconian, sure.

Working? You betcha.

And if it doesn't? Do it anyway.

No phish for the likes of you, thank you very much! Google finds email villains are picky about demographics, country

Re: I don't find Google blocks too well

What?

I'm saying I CAN'T filter it.

There is no option.

But I do have family who email me pics anyway.

I don't find Google blocks too well

Still using a Gmail account like an idiot, I do get spam through to the inbox on occasion.

Like this Tesco email, the entire content is an image with zero text. And Gmail does not let you filter messages that are just an image (nor am I sure I would always want to). With no words in the body, it is difficult to filter at all, as the senders change every time.

More research, more action welcome.

Web prank horror: Man shot dead while pretending to rob someone at knife-point for a YouTube video

You beg to differ just for something to say. Wind it in.

ThinkPad T14s AMD Gen 1: Workhorse that does the business – and dares you to push that red button

Re: I have one!

Also it does take micro SD cards.

The charge time is impressive. Think its a 40watt charger. I have actually slow charged it with a bog standard USBC brick for my blower, though paranoid about the battery this way, it works.

And it really is light. I went for it instead it the Carbon. I don't think I made the wrong choice!

Re: "grille on the bottom"

Nope. It's cool. A lot lot cooler than other reviews suggest. I'd say any warmth comes out the side more than the bottom anyway. The bottom seems for air flow.

I have one!

Be careful, DHL lost it for two weeks.

Great laptop though. Battery life. Got one of the higher NITS screens. Almost silent.

Fully recommended as a Thinkpad in 2021, especially as you swerve the Intel tax!

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to step down this summer, AWS boss Andy Jassy to step up

Re: Regardless, it’s hard not to be impressed by the wave of innovations that Amazon has provided

While I could spend all day slating Amazon, and you're absolutely free to dismiss their successes, I think you're being a bit unfair here on El Reg.

I see, so any positivity is sucking and slurping out of fear of reprisal...

How about this: it's a difference of opinion rather than an indication of corruption?

Samsung Galaxy S21: Lots of little downgrades, but this phone is more than the sum of its parts

Root lets you block the massive bombardment of ads. I mean, Blokada is good but Adaway even solves in-app ads

If you can't see a benefit to root I don't think you're looking hard enough. Don't be an advertising sap all your life!

We regret to inform you the professor teaching your online course is already dead

Re: It's official

The future ain't what it used to be.

Four cold calling marketing firms fined almost £500k by ICO

Non law abiding scammers

I'm a lot more bothered by the (usually overseas, spoofing they're HM Revenue) illegal calls where they spoof a UK number, and just lie, anything they can to get your card deets.

Can nothing be done? Because nothing is being done. I'm thinking on a technical level. The phone companies do nothing. (and I don't mean "do something" for me personally. I want to GET THEM.)

Honor has flown the nest: Announces first phone as an independent firm, inks deals with supply chain big dogs

Re: To the author : Thank you

I used to think that but then I got the Xiaomi mi 10 ultra and its charging Dock. Its faster than my previous phone on the mains and, being a Dock, is pretty hard to screw up!

Just saying, if you want to criticise the old standard, fine but it's not only developing well, but I have the next big thing already. It's out there.

So what can we expect from a Joe Biden White House when it comes to tech? We'll try to answer that right now

Re: Project fear mark III

With the utmost respect, sir, you are a fucking doolally nutcase

Xiaomi

I suspect he won't be overturning the strange, groundless ban on Xiaomi products.

London calling: 5G coverage in British capital grew during second half of last year with fastest speeds on Vodafone

Re: You can say it

4G is good, really a noticeable upgrade from 3G.

5G not so much.

And that's before you take into account the higher prices, the limited coverage, and the teensy little fact we're basically stuck at home for months still...

Back to the office with you: 'Perhaps 5 days is too much family time' – Workday CEO

Re: He's right

You're unsustainable!

Scottish Environment Protection Agency refuses to pay ransomware crooks over 1.2GB of stolen data

Good

Starve these crooks of what they do this for - money

Glad at least this organisation understands paying this is bad. They will learn an infosec lesson here - hopefully - the hard way, but those scammers must not prosper whatever it takes.

Xiaomi hit by US sanctions: Can't list on stock exchanges and investors can't invest

As long as the UK doesn't copy it

Their phones are amazing.

This is a groundless ban. A racist one even.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says Trump ban means the service has failed

Re: Screwed the pooch and knows it

"The point is by banning POTUS in all his forms they’ve set a precedent that others will hold Twitter to."

If that precedent is inciting violence that costs lives, then that's a good thing, not bad.

Freedom of speech has limits. I don't think they should be OTT, but don't value speech more than human life.

Re: Screwed the pooch and knows it

Trump incited violence.

You seem to be merrily ignoring that massive issue. Like Twitter would randomly ban for any reason.

People died due to Trump. You are ignoring that why?

Offshoring is kind of over, says Wipro, as financials surge thanks to offshoring

Re: "other nations just don’t have as much talent for Wipro to hire"

Wipro's definition of talent is "cheap"!

Nothing about proficiency, not one bit.

Re: Offshoring is not about quality

.. And I'd add, while I didn't stick around, I strongly suspect the cost benefit is extremely short term.

That was my overriding thought about IBM's non-replacement of a dedicated Problem Management team. They rolled it into the Service Desk.

Anyone well versed in ITIL may well bristle at that... But I just saw it as foolish, particularly when the Major Incident Management team were let go without a knowledge transfer (I was on garden leave at this point).

There is something to be said for experience, knowhow and specialisation. I cannot, in any world that values efficency (and IBM's world isn't that), see how this wouldn't cost more in the long run.

Offshoring is not about quality

It is a bean counting exercise

Having been in India and managed the transition for both IBM and Wipro, I have experience trying to stop the churn, I tried to run training giving genuine expertise.

Meanwhile, my UK colleagues with families were getting binned off.

I failed. Because it was me vs an entire company culture. Wipro were if anything worse than IBM, as IBM then had the weight of actually having happy clients.

These days? I'm out that game, it was soul destroying just seeing people being made redundant over and over and the idea I was helping it happen.

Wipro were not interested in expertise. They were interested in cheap bums on seats to follow a script.

If you seriously think offshoring is about anything but the financial bottom line, think on....

Re: Nothing wrong with either

Offshoring takes jobs away from people here. You're alright with that? It's a money saving exercise.

I've certainly never seen it done for quality reasons. And I have set up departments in India. I've tried to get change in.. Stop the churn. But it's warm bums on seats, and IBM and Wipro were the most stubborn companies I worked transition for.

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

a shamefaced colleague stepped forward to confess to the deed.

What a dunderhead this fellow was / may well still be!

I've never done this, nope sir, nope nope nope (other sounds of protesting too much)

Trump silenced online: Facebook, Twitter etc balk at insurrection, shut the door after horse bolts and nearly burns down the stable

Re: Hmmm

Free speech is speech.

Action not covered by it.

Limit it to words.

Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 Gen 8: No boundaries were pushed in the making of this laptop – and that's OK

It was you couching the word "properly", it reads really odd.

Like, Oh, if you "properly" type then that explains it!

It's weird. Like you're reaching into some reason, some explanation. And here you are, instead of reasoning other, professional people who have used the device think it is superior, you're merely writing all that off to take it down some weird corridor of "ohh, pfft, I only got down votes because I type differently!"

It's nonsense. You're allowed to like the clitmouse or not. You don't like it, and questioned it's worth, and got - rightly, IMO - down voted for being wrong.

Oh but it's those "proper" typers!

Re: try it vs coffee

Another reason why the Carbon line doesn't measure up to the main Thinkpad line..

So you're having a go at us for being able to type properly?

Re: AMD Options?

I have their T14s in AMD and I can strongly recommend it, check out some comparisons with the Intel model - it's the way to go, surely Lenovo

Cheaper alternative Thinkpad

The T14s is almost as thin, has all the ports, has a 14" screen and best of all now comes with an AMD chip making it less expensive as you're not paying the Intel tax

AMD's latest top-end RX 6900 XT GPUs vacuumed up in minutes... maybe even by some actual gamers

Unsurprising lack of action

I've reported a few scalpers to Amazon - I am not alone in doing so, as these sellers get many comments calling them all sorts.

None of them taken down. See also Ebay

And what tech hardware shops have put up anti bot measures?

The sad truth is filthy lucre. They don't care how the money comes in or who, or what, it is for.

Ever had a bogus call from someone claiming to be the IRS? A tax scam ringleader just got sent down for 20 years

Re: Who says crime doesn't pay?

Why is how much he has left relevant? Just take it out on his jail time

With your logic I could rob a Post Office, blow it all on bitter and cocaine* and plead I HAVE NO MONEY

And evade justice!

*One of these is much less likely than the soothing other

While I don't disagree

Why not comment on this case directly?

what do you think of this scoundrel?

Do the maths, not enough

Let's say he even got ten million

Twenty years

Half a million per year, without him getting out early

That's not justice to me.

Netflix chooses its own judgment in 'Bandersnatch' case: Settle and make the nasty lawsuit go away

Not saying I agree with the way it is, but basically, it's still a trademark, and if they want to keep it a trademark and non-generic they basically have to fight the unauthorised use of their property.

While it may be a generic term to you, and I don't exactly disagree, this is very basic copyright protection behaviour.

Arriving in 2021, the UK's Digital Markets Unit 'could' start to do something about the power of online ad giants

Re: Good idea but will it have teeth?

"would it really be satisfying to hold the CEO accountable who is not the Zuck?"

Yes.

Good idea but will it have teeth?

That's the thing isn't it. I want it to be able to absolutely scare companies

No piffling little fines of billionaire tech corps

I'd LOVE the directors of offending companies to be personally legally accountable.

Without teeth this is doomed...

Manchester United email servers remain offline amid what is being called a 'ransomware' attack

They're suining Football Manager

For millions and millions. No other English clubs are.

Windows 10 installation shows shopping centre its sad face – the natural response to finding out you're in Peterborough

Re: So it has been like for at least 2 weeks

Sounds about right for sorting a Windows BSOD.