Posts by M.V. Lipvig

Bids for ISS demolition rights are now open, NASA declares

I see... I see

I see a bald man.

I see...

I see a bald man, with a white Persian cat.

I see... grey.

I see a bald man in a Mao jacket. Grey.

I see...

I see...

Anyone else see where this is going?

FCC plans to restore net neutrality rules tossed out under Trump

This is one

of the few places where I agree with the Democrats in the US. Internet service really should be regulated as a utility, and internet providers should treat all traffic the same Further, they should not be overselling theit networks, and should be providing what they sell, not "up to" and telling you that even though you lay for a 100MB connection there's no problem if you only ever get 50MB average so long as you get the 100MB every once in a while.

UK-US data deal could hinge on fate of legal challenges to EU arrangement

Bit of a mistake, that

You guys really should fight any sort of data sharing with the US. Once the vacuum is turned on, it stays on. It's too late for us, save yourselves.

The iPhone 15 has a Goldilocks issue: Too big or too small. Maybe a case will make it just right

Re: Phones are lovely but they'd be much better without cameras

Yup, and I often use mine while turning wrenches in the garage. Pictures to show how something came apart, pictures of something I'm working on in a blind spot, ect.

BOFH: A security issue, you say? Activate code tangerine

Re: Anonymous Survey

And that's why I give them the answers they're looking for, not honest answers.

Re: Wonderful episode once again!

It would be better to borrow from an earlier BOFH. Put in an alarm clock with some curly wires attached, and insert a metallic cutout that has some curly script on it. When they find all this, they'll need to search for the rest of the bomb using a pair of <SCHWACK!!!> rubber gloves.

Data breach reveals distressing info: People who order pineapple on pizza

I LOVE pineapple on a pizza, along with pepperoni, hamburger and mushrooms, double sauce, double cheese, well done on a hand tossed crust. Go on, blackmail me with it. Everyone I know already knows. Better yet, bring one round my house and I'll let you photograph me eating it for extra blackmailly goodness. Just don't expect anything for your efforts.

Re: Pineapple on pizza...

That sounds AMAZING! It also sounds like it should be served with a side of lipotor. Gonna have to try that one though.

Re: I don't understand...

"My complaint against ketchup is really against the more westernised version, which is far too sweet, and far too little tomato-tasting for my taste"

And that's because western ketchup is high fructose corn syrup into which somebody squeezed a tomato.

South Korea's Moon orbiter snaps India's lander

As good a reason as any other, if it didn't cost probably 40 grand USD per launched pound for a Moon shot. Going the extra weight would imply testing for other uses.

That's neat and all, but that Indian lander looks a lot like the US lander from the 1970s. I wonder why they chose a lander design meant for carrying people for an unmanned mission? Anyone heard whether or not India is planning manned missions?

Uncle Sam names three Amazon execs as Prime suspects in subscription ripoff case

The ONLY way

to put a stop to this is to put said execs in prison, REAL prison, for several years along with fining the company. And, tell their replacements "You can be next." Monetary fines are the cost of doing business, C-suite prison terms makes it far more personal for them. And yes, let the C-suite take the prison sentence for what underlings do. Taking those risks is why they're paid the big bucks.

Okay, SMART ePANTS, you tell us how to create network-connected textiles

Gonna say pass

I don't want to be seen walking around in public speaking to my crotch, nor do I want to be seen walking around in public with my crotch answering. And don't get me started on the dating scene, where my pants have a better pickup line than I do.

Ford, BMW, Honda to steer bidirectional EV charging standard

Re: Battery sharing?

Awful lot of assumptions there, but I take a bit more cynical view of how a corporation (particularly a utility) will use my equipment for their benefit, starting with the paper they will have you sign stating that they are not responsible for damage or loss of lifepan on the battery. Plus, I only assumed they would run one charge cycle on it per day when they would be able to run more than one. Not to mention, finding the battery drained right when you want to go out because the power company decided to use your juice during the day. No, I just can't see allowing it. You downvoters go right ahead though, don't say you weren't warned.

Battery sharing?

When every recharge cycle affects battery life, and the battery only has a thousand good charging cycles before range is degraded? Not just no but HELL no. It's bad enough that you'd need new batteries that cost as much as a new car after 200K miles if you'te lucky, but imagine driving 100 miles once a week, and needing to replace the battery after 3 years and 15,000 miles of driving because the utility used your battery for spare backup. I guarantee they'll be charging you 10 times more for the power going in than for the power coming out.

Techie labelled 'disgusting filth merchant' by disgusting hypocrite

Re: "The caller had paid the bill, but wasn't happy."

The Old Bill only learned about online pron about 10 years ago, to answer that question.

Re: "The caller had paid the bill, but wasn't happy."

THOU ART AN HERETIC!

UK civil servants – hopefully including those spending billions on tech – to skill up in STEM

Re: How about

I dunno, I really don't want to see a politician using the BOFH as a guide. I mean sure, watching the rest of the politicians go out the window via the wood chipper would be fun, but then we're left with a bloodthirsty megalomaniac interested only in self enrichment and torture for amusement. That never goes over well for the common muck.

Apple's iPhone 12 woes spread as Belgium, Germany, Netherlands weigh in

I can see it now -

"The phone that was tested was repaired by a third party repair shop and no longer meets Apple's rigorous standards of quality."

No matter that third parties can't fix them yet.

"PS: How do you measure this power per watt of bodyweight I wonder? I'm going to have to investigate..."

Going to take a guess here - the human body is mostly water, so they probably measure the phone's output, then put the phone into a cube with lead on 5 walls and water behind rigid mylar as the 6th wall, then measure the phone's output through the water. Said cube would need to be a kilogram of water, mylar window on 1 side, lead walls on 4 sides, then the last wall lead with a sensor sized mylar window. Lead will not allow radiation to escape, mylar appears invisible to radio waves and is used on satellite antennas to keep water out of the waveguide. Measurement A minus measurement B equals the absorbed power.

Stoner Cats NFT project declawed for being an unregistered security

Re: I still can't believe...

She knew what she wanted from an early age. It was statutory made in Hollywood.

Re: Get Rich Quick

Orphan grinding? I love those little monkeys!

Activist investor to GoDaddy: Cut costs, improve sales, or sell

Re: "activist" investor

Arr an activist investor be not intarrrrested in a company's laaaaoong taaeerm prospects, he be intarrrrested only in plundering the company, driving up the price of the stock in the short taaeerm, then unloading the aarrrrtifically inflated stock price on yon unwitting adventuraaars.

The icon, she be me flag!

GitHub alienates developers by force feeding them AI recommendations

Re: Farceberk did it years ago...

AND YET YOU'RE STILL THERE! And that is the ongoing problem - NO CORPORATION EVER cares whether their customers like anything, as long as they continue to make money. If you don't like what they do, then shut them off. When enough people do it, THEN they'll make changes. Seems like Github was organically grown to begin with, growing a new one should be a lot faster since you all know what you want and what it should feel like. Only this time, you need an owner that either won't be lured by the Windows Side, or has a plan in place so that the minute M$ pulls the trigger, everyone else jumps ship and leaves M$ with a ghost server. It actually might make a nice little revenue generator.

Re: I detest all this "for you", "did you know" stuff

Can't be that hard, just make the popup pop up where the mouse is, 1/10 of a second after the mouse stops moving.

Silly coders,

expecting a M$ owned platform to be for THEIR use. We all know it's so M$ can squeeze the maximum amount of milk from you, regardless of how much moo they get.

Scientists spot startlingly close black holes in Hyades star cluster

Re: "we'd probably already be dead"

Don't know why anyone is worried. We likely wouldn't even have a chance to wonder what's going on.

Airbus takes its long, thin, plane on a ten-day test campaign

Re: An interesting experiment

The problem is people keep buying those tickets. If they'd stop, and I mean REALLY stop, the airlines would either give and make seating better or go out of business.

Re: "leaving airlines to decide if they want to cram passengers in"

Actually the two new ideas on the block are standing saddles, where you get to enjoy turbulence while sitting in a 10 speed bicycle seat while almost standing, or a double decker seat where nobody gets a window and the lower deck gets to stare directly into the ass hole of the person in the upper deck. And remember that some airports serve Mexican and Indian food so, hot blast of that literally one foot from your nose.

Let's give these quadruped robot dogs next-gen XM7 rifles, says US Army

Re: 10-round magazine...

So when the gun doggie is out of ammo, one of the other dogs mounts it from the rear and proceeds to start pumping more ammo in? Will hitting them with a hose work?

So the dog

Has a rifle in its mouth? That bark's gonna bite! What's next, a plastic explosive dispenser out back?

Windows screensaver left broadcast techie all at sea

Place I worked for would do this. If you left your box unlocked the wallpaper would be changed to rather large American football players in a state of photogenic undress, by which I mean laying on a bed with a strategically placed... washcloth, if you were lucky and no washcloth if you weren't. I never participated as this was an HR complaint just begging to happen as soon as one of the thin skinned wandered through, nor was I ever caught out - at my previous place of emoloyment, the favored prank was emailing people from your official workplace email account. Nothing like trying to explain to The Boss that no, you didn't send a letter of resignation while calling him a left handed golfer.

Hey Cap'n, I stuck me willie in the buggery box and it didn do nuffin!

Arrr, that's because it be YARRR day in the box!!

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is returning with its first-ever asteroid sample

Should be interesting as 1/10 is 23,800ish miles, and that takes it within the orbits of some satellites floating around up there.

Twitter says it may harvest biometric, employment data from its addicts

Re: User consent....

I've often considered copywriting my name (when referring to me) as well as my image, just so I can go after them should my image or my name (when referring to me) is found on these sites. Would make for intereating case law, especially since celebrities have already paved the way here.

We all scream for ice cream – so why are McDonald's machines always broken?

Re: Limiting choice is anticompetitive

Can't it be both?

After years of fighting Right to Repair, Apple U-turns-ish in California

Re: Apple users are like Trump supporters and Brexiteers

Odd, and here I thought the Apple fanbois in the US were all voting blue. i vote red or independent, and have been using Android phones for years. My first smart phone was an Apple, then I didn't need the training wheels anymore.

Simple fix -

No right to repair? Then the OEM is required to replace the defective unit with another one, right up to the last day of the warranty, and provide a new day one warranty on the replacement. Don't make it anymore so don't have a replacement? It gets replaced with the current version level that matches the original purchase (if it was the flagship 10 years ago, customer gets the latest flagship) and again, warranty starts at day 1. Or, allow third parties to repair with third party parts if the customer wants.

Moscow makes a mess on the Moon as Luna 25 probe misses orbit, lands with a thud

Re: Crashing good landing, eh what, old chap?

Ouch.

Роскосмос

Pock mark? Quite a lot of Rooskie stuff seems to go splat these days.

Budget satellite drag sail shows space junk how to gracefully exit orbit

Re: Who's doing the evil research?

I forsee using a cubesat that splits into 4 cubesats with a filament web between them. The cubesat splits out making a net that grabs more and more satellites. Eventually, enough are roped together that the orbital speed can no longer keep the combined mass in orbit, and down they come. The cubesat pieces could even have motors on board that could slow the mass down. Even if the net didn't hold, the effect on orbital speed would still be enough to force a deorbit.

Re: It works only if the satellite electronics still work at the end of its mission time.

They don't actually have to buy this. This proved the concept works, so satty builders can build their own parachute system.

Concorde? Pffft. NASA wants a Mach 4 passenger jet

Re: Wrong approach

Actually, civilian flights would be a side benefit, not the actual goal regardless of what they say. A Mach 4 passenger plane is also a Mach 4 troop transport that can have a full company of men anywhere in the world in a couple of hours, 4 hours at the outside. NASA and the US military have worked closely together since 1958. It's no accident that astronauts almost always have military rank, while those who don't are always referred to as civiilian astronauts.

Zoom CEO reportedly tells staff: Workers can't build trust or collaborate... on Zoom

Re: Are any of these corporations uninstalling Teams/Zoom now?

Odd, as my company found just the opposite - when people know they are being recorded on Teams and phones, there is no gossip - work only. In person work though, and the gossip flows like the mighty Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. I like it, no gossip means no inane chatter I have zero interest in listening to.

Hollywood studios agree AI-generated content should not reduce humans' pay or credit

Wow, that's what they earn?

I really need to consider a career change. I can write better TV shows while blind stinking drunk than the drivel that passes for storylines and dialogue these days. However, that's not really saying anything, when the bar is already set low enough to trip ants.

Dropbox limits ‘all the storage you need’ unlimited plan, blames abusive users

Re: The limit on M365 OneDrive is 25TB these days

And that is a foolish attitude on the part of those businesses. The minute a business is no longer profitable, bam - gone. If they make a mistake and lose years of your data, their responsibility begins and ends with "whoops, sorry about that." You'd think they would have learned about unnecessarily relying on others when covid blew up supply chains. And, there have been a number of cloud problems with outages, data theft, ect. All that risk, just to save your own hide from a 5 story fall into a dumpster full of broken glass and machinery.

Stalking victims sue Tile and Amazon for negligence over tracking tech

Re: Who, you?

There is a Constitutional right to be armed, but driving is a privilege. Those that abuse their Constitutional right to be armed by committing a crime get locked up.

And no, there is not a large majority in favor of limits on rights. There is a small minority making a lot of noise for limits, trying to sound like a majority.

Meta to use work badge and Status Tool to snoop on staff

It's a trap. "Your performance improved over the last 18 months with 3 days in the office, so now we are requiring full time office work with no work from home."

"Just this week, a survey indicated that 80 percent of executives actually regret mandating a return to the office, and Atlassian said last month these initiatives destroy staff morale and slow innovation."

This is the amswer. If you like WFH and are forced back to the office, in-office performance needs to crater. So, the days you work from home you do a good job, the days you work from the office you... don't. When asked, cite workplace distractions as interfering with the job, and point out that these diatractions do not exist at home and do not affect your performance. We need a concerted effort to break employers.

I know what you did next summer: Microsoft to kill off Xbox 360 Store

Re: Ffs

And that's exactly why I never joined the rest of the world in the cloud. Still have my CDs and DVDs, still have several backup players, enough to last at least 50 years. After that, I don't think I'll be caring anymore.