* Posts by ITMA

1039 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2019

You've just spent $400 on a baby monitor. Now you need a subscription

ITMA Silver badge

Re: "the sudden imposition of subscription fees"

Things tend to be rather better regarding grid outages here in the UK.

Where I live if the power goes out I look at the UK Power Networks website (on my phone via mobile data) and, more often than not, they already know of the issue from their own infrastructure monitoring equipment.

If not I can just give them a call. I can even register to receive SMS updates on my mobile, which are pretty efficient and comprehensive, for that specific incident.

AI girlfriend encouraged man to attempt crossbow assassination of Queen

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Convicted of Treason

J'accuse le détecteur de fumé of "attempting to injure or alarm the Sovereign"" by going off when they burnt the Royal Toast.

Arrest that smoke alarm!

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: In Other News ...

"Too bad we can't put the economy and supporting artificialities of law on trial, unmitigatable deficiencies in economic systems are constantly inciting crime."

To put the "artificialities of law" on trial you need... LAW!

Are you arguing that making murder a crime under law is inciting people to commit murder? You seem to be.

True, you can't commit a "crime" without law. However, one of the most fundamental concepts of civilisation and thus civilised society is the establishment of law.

That even predates the bilical "ten commandments" which are themselves laws.

Have another downvote from me.

FTC: Please stop falling for social media scams, you've given crooks at least $650M so far this year

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Well, seeing as ...

Anti-social media.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

The advice I give to our staff when it comes these sort of scam emails/messages is this:

Trust no one, suspect everything. If in any doubt, ask and send me a SCREEN SHOT of the email (do NOT forward the email itself).

And they are learning.

Google says that YouTube vid can wait if it saves on energy

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: 80 minutes?

"...keep chucking the dead dinosaurs in the tank."

Will it run on members of the Houe of Lords?

They sound like they fit the criteria. ;)

When is a PC an AI PC? Nobody seems to know or wants to tell

ITMA Silver badge

Re: What a load of bullshit

And remember - this is the same Lenovo who preinstalled Superfish spyware on their PCs.

https://www.theregister.com/2015/02/19/superfish_lenovo_spyware/

https://www.theregister.com/2015/08/12/lenovo_firmware_nasty/

Human knocks down woman in hit-and-run. Then driverless Cruise car parks on top of her

ITMA Silver badge

Re: My first thought ...

That is a well put argument.

Essentially, what you saying is it is not being reported in the "usual style" because the victim's initial (relatively) minor injuries from the first vehicle have been made (potentially) much worse by the Cruise vehicle.

Thus the focus of the investigation could well be focussing on that, most of the video evidence for which is in the possesion of Cruise and (potentially) being kept out of reach behind a wall of expensive coporate lawyers.

Not "covered-up" so much as "lawyered up".

ITMA Silver badge

Re: My first thought ...

"...influence with the politicians in SF (little white envelopes, anyone?)"

Well, that wouldmake it feel odd for a start - they're using the wrong colour envelopes!

They envelopes should brown not white and fat with cash not little ;)

ITMA Silver badge

Re: My first thought ...

" It came out sounding like something Russell Brand or one of his ilk might say, though."

Given what is currently happening with Russel Brand in the UK, that comment may be interpreted in way more ways than you may have intended.

As that (Russel Brand) is a case currently under investigation, I'll say no more than that.

ITMA Silver badge

Re: My first thought ...

You should read up on the reporting of a murder case in the UK - "Murder of Joanna Yeates".

The press reporting, not to mention the unsocial media frenzy, about one person because he was initially arrested for questioning was appalling. The media had essentially publicly pronounced him guilty.

In reality he was completely exonerated and entirely innocent as proven by the forensic evidence. The real murderer was caught and convicted by the same means.

So sometimes the reporting of an incident can feel "funny" until all the facts have came out.

You also need to factor in the love in the US of suing law enforcement - particularly by businesses who may in some way be involved - if law enforcement say the slightest wrong thing which they may not be able to back up. So sometimes better to say nothing until you can back up it up.

This can also make the reporting seem "funny". Just don't automatically jump to conclusions too soon.

ITMA Silver badge

Re: My first thought ...

Including you ;)

ITMA Silver badge

Re: My first thought ...

"Breaking" stories are often missing information for all sorts of valid, non-conspiracy reasons. The initial reporting can also be very vague, confused and misleading. The media (plus unsocial media) will be clutching at anything to get a story.

It doesn't mean it is being "withheld".

I was working in central London on 7th July 2005 when the terrorist bombs went off (one destroying a bus in Tavistock Square and three in different location on the London Underground). The initial reports were mostly rumour and hearsay (not to mention frequently flat wrong) because it took time to work out what actually had happened and the priority was dealing with the incidents and the casualties and not giving "press briefings".

It was only quite a bit later that accurate information came into the public arena.

Even then, sometimes crucial information may be withheld, for very valid reasons, if releasing it could interfere with or otherwise prejudice the investigation.

As you say, it takes time to get video expertly analysed so releasing it before then could be very misleading until law enforcement have a clearer understanding of what it actually it shows.

Rushing to the press before establishing the facts often is NOT the best thing for law enforcement to do in an on going case.

Also, someone has to "edit" the video to release an edited version. Doing that properly also takes time so the released edit is not misleading.

ITMA Silver badge

Re: Interesting that the police

Quite.

I can't imagine having the rear wheel of a car on top of one's leg for any length of time is going to be good.

ITMA Silver badge

Re: My first thought ...

Why "probably a fake"?

And why with access to all sorts of expert witnesses, including image/video analysis experts, would the police be "not likely to be able to spot a faked video"?

Are you such a ghoul that you think the public have some right to see people being injured, possibly badly?

You should also consider what "law enforcement" do - it is THEIR job to investigate this, NOT the public.

Twatter, TikTok etc seem have given people the belief that they can trample all over legitimate law enforcement/police investigations and be voyeurs/judge/jury/executioner all rolled into one.

Fuming Tom Hanks says he had nothing to do with that AI dental ad clone of him

ITMA Silver badge

"I think the question was, why clone the face of an existing person when they could just generate a fake face from scratch and pay nobody at all."

The answer to that is simple - using a famous (celebrity) face is more likely (the advertisers hope) to bring in more business (and thus profit) than a "nobody", real or fake.

Search for phone signal caused oil spill, say Japanese investigators

ITMA Silver badge

Re: A-bloody-mazing!

And no RADAR or SONAR.

ITMA Silver badge

All well and good.

But it does ignore the prime responsibility of being captain of a sea going vessel:

STEER THE BLOODY SHIP AND DON'T RUN INTO ANYTHING.

What was so important on his mobile that it took priority over that?

It is not too different from this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-59951710

ITMA Silver badge

It wasn't my fault!

I'm waiting for the insurance claim:

"I was proceeding in an orderly manner when this coral reef jumped out in front of my ship from nowhere".

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

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wonderful episode once again!

Some years ago, back when the IRA were active in the UK, I was working for a printer manufacturer and had a visit to the Lloyds building in central London to support one of our sales "execs" - that's the building with all the plumbing on the outside.

We did get some funny looks from building security carrying in printer toner which came in foot long "tubes" sealed in silver metalic plastic - a range of printers where toner and drum were seperate.

Probably didn't help saying (in a bad Irish accent) "Can you pass the semtex"....

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wonderful episode once again!

That stick-on lead flashing works better :)

Textbook publishers sue shadow library LibGen for copyright infringement

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Surrender the domain names

Or this really horrible annoying naff one from UK VHS tapes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU

Especially as they appeared to be aimed at an age range which probably would nick most of the things they say "You wouldn't steal...."

Getting to the bottom of BMW's pay-as-you-toast subscription failure

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: subscription plan to activate heated seats

Like brains....

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: if you tolerate this then your chilled air will be next.

Like certain IBM line printers which cost $xK per month, plus some usage charge.

For $xK times just under two per month, you could upgrade it to a line printer which goes twice as fast.

When upgrade day came the IBM engineer would arrive and usher everyone out of the room. Off would come the covers of the printer and a drive belt moved from one set of pulleys to another. Covers went back on and printer now goes twice as fast.

These days you can teach old tech a bunch of new tricks

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: A first?

Venereal perhaps.

Take some antibiotics, that should sort it out for you.

Scientists trace tiny moonquakes to Apollo 17 lander – left over from 1972

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: degrees Kelvin

This is the way....

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Too bad the system is no longer working

The S-IVB booster from Apollo 13 was detected crashing into the moon by the seismometer set up during Apollo 12.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls8d3C3XCgc

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: El Reg comparators for temperature?

No that would be the Agony Box or Pain Box.

The gom jabbar is the poison needle held at one's neck to inflict near instant death if you remove your hand from the box before you are told to.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: El Reg comparators for temperature?

Could I suggest..

Hot.

Very hot.

Fuck me that's hot!

AGGGGHHH Jesus Fuck... Me hand!

ITMA Silver badge

Re: "craters at the Moon's south pole"

Lunar seismographs can tell us a great deal that ground penetrating radar cannot.

Almost everything we think we know about the internal structure of the Earth as well as the moon is based on seismographic evidence (along with magnetometers)

However, if you know where you can get a ground penetrating radar that will penetrate 1,737 Km (for the moon) or 6,371 Km (Earth) I'm sure we'd all be very interested.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Where is my conversion chart for "football fields", "jumbo jets" and "freight trains" (though the length and gross laden weight of said freight train is never specificed).

How's this for X-ray specs? Wi-Fi can read through walls... if the letters are solid objects

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Now we can finally find...

One has been able to buy gadgets to do that for a long time.

Nothing new in that.

https://www.bestproductsreviews.co.uk/stud-finder?targetid=kwd-299026068905&matchtype=b&device=c&campaignid=12134395330&creative=493317846389&adgroupid=120735521750&feeditemid=&loc_physical_ms=1006621&loc_interest_ms=&network=g&devicemodel=&placement=&keyword=$%2Bbest%20%2Bstud%20%2Bfinder&target=&aceid=&adposition=&trackid=uk_all_top_11_1&mId=407-132-4411&trackOld=true&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInI-JnZiogQMVWfDtCh1L3wobEAAYASAAEgJE3vD_BwE

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Can Wi-Fi read through walls?

You mean like this bit of really crap reporting by the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-64668021

1. It is not even in the shape of a "robot". It is a direct copy of a Lego "human" figure.

2. It is does not "melt itself". That is done by the application of an external energy field.

3. It can't move itself when molten. That is done by the application of external magnetic forces which drag it along.

Pure click bait.

Lawyer's Microsoft email snafu goes from $1.75M lawsuit to Ctrl+Alt+Settle

ITMA Silver badge

Re: locked out of MFA

With at least one of them NOT being the account you could potentially be locked out of.

Having said that, Microsoft are getting much more "very arms length while holding a 30ft barge pole" when it comes to dealing with the proletariat.

Microsoft to kill off third-party printer drivers in Windows

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Still printers will hang and drivers will be bloated

If you want to see a true example of this, look no further than:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4QJRLsVtys

And YES. it really is every bit as bad as in the video and YES, it really does comes with a USB memory stick containing cracked pirated software stuffed full of malware.

I know. I had to deal with one someone bought from eBay for..... £2,500 !!!!

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

"backward" certainly figures in numerous decisions Microsoft have made in the past.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Still printers will hang and drivers will be bloated

" and 'drivers' will be gargantuan bloatwares that include every sort of useless functions, spyware, and adware"

You sound familiar with HP drivers.... LOL

Long-lost 1977 Star Wars X-Wing prop discovered – lock s-foils in bid position

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: I mostly want

I want to know - who has the model of the PENISAURUS from Flesh Gordon? LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCe5TlVduvY

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: I mostly want

You can have the Flash Gordon one.

I'll have the Flesh Gordon LOL

Bombshell biography: Fearing nuclear war, Musk blocked Starlink to stymie Ukraine attack on Russia

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: So Musk has blood on his hands

"Airliners have advanced automation capable of navigating and even landing and braking to a stop on the runway. The pilots are still fully responsible for the aircraft from brake release to parking at the gate."

And before around October 2021 if that airliner was a Boeing 737 MAX the automation was quite capable of killing everyone on board - and did several times - despite the actions of the pilots to stop it.

Scared of flying? Good news! Software glitches keep aircraft on the ground

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: NATS crashed.

And what? NATS should just accept it and assume that because it is "properly formatted" that it isn't "properly formatted gibberish"?

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: NATS crashed.

Precisely.

The question is - what happens when other types of errors appear in flight plans that are submitted but fail validation?

Surely this must happen.

What does it currently do in that situation? I presume (hope!!!) it does something sensible!

Toyota servers ran out of storage, crashed production at 14 plants in Japan

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Lost in Translation?

This is a technique I have been known to use at times based upon a rough translation of the Christmas song "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"

"Let it fail, let it fail, let it fail".

If management will just not grasp the consequences of doing nothing. Do nothing and let it all crash and burn. After ensuring you have ample CYA (cover your ass) evidence to prove you warned them and a well prepared plan for GYOOTS - Getting Yourself Out Of The Shit.

Mozilla calls cars from 25 automakers 'data privacy nightmares on wheels'

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: re: Tesla warns customers:

You mean as in more reliable? LOL

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: re: Tesla warns customers:

Now I truly know what a guy I knew years ago meant when he said:

"I won't buy a car that needs anything more sophisticated than a blow torch and a lump hammer to maintain/repair".

He liked old (series 1 and series 2) Land Rovers.

Largest local government body in Europe goes under amid Oracle disaster

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Compulsory Purchase of private houses

Ah.... PFI writ large!

UK air traffic woes caused by 'invalid flight plan data'

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Expertise

"extreme fail-safe strategy"

As I mentioned in another El-Reg item, because the fail-over backup system did exactly the same thing...

Their fail-over fell over and failed.

A strategy along the lines of:

Mode change to "HUFF".

State change to "SULK".

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Expertise

RyanAir charge extra for submitting either of those.

UK flights disrupted by 'technical issue' with air traffic computer system

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: At 1515 the organization said that it had "identified and remedied" the technical issue

According to the BBC's reporting of the NATS report on the incident - it did exactly that:

"This triggered the system to automatically stop working for safety reasons, so that no incorrect information was passed to Nats' air traffic controllers. The backup system then did the same thing."

Google Chrome pushes ahead with targeted ads based on your browser history

ITMA Silver badge
Flame

Dear Google

Please accept my feedback in which ever order you wish to interpret them:

"The", "Off", "Right", "Fuck".

Although they have miles to go to get to the same level of fuckery Microsoft get up to every time they do some pointless update to Edge - usually an excuse to force all of their preferred settings on to you and try to force you to use it.