Posts by Zakspade

Meta fined $275m after data-scraping fiasco leaked 533m Facebook users' profiles

These things make me smile. I have a FB account. If my account had been part of that data leak, all anyone would get was my name. DoB, email, phone, in fact ALL data fields required are filled with dummy data. Anyone who knows me doesn't need FB to make contact with me (although it is simple). Likewise, or ALL of my FB Friends I hold a contact method (not on/within FB). If FB vanished off the face of the earth overnight, my interaction with friends would go on. The criminals end up with just a name...

Basically, folks - why bother populating accounts with real data?

Elon Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors are coming back

Isn't that known as "doing a Microsoft"?

Is he really that naive?

RE the Trump vote...

I used to Follow Musk (I'd rather see what he says rather than the 'filtered-by-the-media' version) - but after finally realising that he has 'lost it' like Kanye West (or whatever he is calling himself this week), I stopped.

Mind you, before I stopped Following him, he announced the vote to allow Trump back. Despite Following Musk, I never saw any such vote or invite. I'm not saying there wasn't one (I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat - honest!), but the way it was run/organised is akin to going to bed on a Thursday night and waking to the radio on Friday telling you the results of a General Election and a government has been formed without you being made aware there was even a vote.

Rather unscientific and a case of acting on the say-so of the few buddy-boys who make 99% of the noise while representing 1% of the Twitter membership.

I don't think Musk is that naive or stupid. Instead, i think he is operating to the Goebbels Principle: tell them what you want them to hear and if you tell them with conviction in your voice, even the biggest lie becomes the truth.

Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth II – Britain's first high-tech monarch

"As someone who was born in an age where computers were room-sized, the speed of innovation certainly outpaced the institution she was born into."

Er... There were no computers in 1926 - room-sized or otherwise.

That said - who cares? A 96yo mother, grandmother, great grandmother has passed on. Her family are having to deal with her passing. Oh, she happened to be the Queen as well...

RIP

Apple debuts iPhone 14, Watch 8, other sparkly things

Is one of the features a survey tacked on the end of Apple news stories? The blooming thing crops up no matter how I try to get rid of it. Poor show, The Register!

Hang on! Solved - turned off Javascript...

Windows 10 still growing, but Win 11 had another bad month, says AdDuplex

"We will update should the company respond."

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

<pauses for breath>

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

We have redundancy, we have batteries, what could possibly go wrong?

Seeing so many Comments on the end of this 'On Call' piece makes me realise that there is probably something wrong at my end. It wasn't linked from the On Call page as usual - so given you guys Commented, it must just be something not refreshing at my end.

Pretty dumb not checking the fuel level though...

IT advice fuelled by beer is the best IT advice of all, right?

Big customer. Problems with a KVM switchbox. Not supported. However, I was instructed to use best endeavours to keep them happy.

Problem was that the box would freeze randomly. Swapping out didn't sure it. After a lot of digging, I traced it to a single user being close to the KVM. They had a heart pacemaker fitted. If they stayed away from the KVM, all was well. If they leant over it or the desk - WHAM! Instant inability to switch between PCs...

So I smile when laptop users b*tch about not being allowed to use their kit on airliners (admittedly, I'm talking about the 90s).

Lack shame? Fancy some festive Windows knitwear? We've got your back

Maybe MIcrosoft could release a form of wear that reflects their command of their own OS?

I'm a Windows 10 user. I run scripts. I create PDFs. I do stuff.

Every once and a while, Windows reassigns file associations. If PDFs to Edge then I need to reboot because it stuffs the app I use to create and edit PDFs.

If it decides to jettison ISO files and surrender them to a random application elsewhere - whether they understand ISO files or not - then my batch files fall over.

Imagine a sweatshirt that changes colour/style at random times. Imagine one that carries a slogan across the front. A slogan which changes at random times.

Wearing it at a Christmas party while it has, "Let Microsoft Windows take you through the world!" is a good start, but should it change to, "Die, Santa, die!" and display, "Anyone who goes to Christmas parties is a loser! Stab me, HERE," then things might not go so swimmingly.

Ah, the joys of Microsoft randomness! Merry Christmas everybody!

Fatal Attraction: Lovely collection, really, but it does not belong anywhere near magnetic storage media

Yes!!!

I often tell people about the time I worked supporting sub POs and one particular office had a Unix box that failed three times. Each time i had sent an engineer out to swap the box out (Unix boxes don't fail via the OS - it is usually hardware - so faffing about onsite wastes valuable engineer and PO time).

After the third swapout I managed to secure authority from management to have the engineer stay on site as the boxes always failed after a only a few hours.

The sub Post Master's wife made a cuppa for the engineer and while he and the PM chatted, she set about festooning the Unix box with fridge magnets which she had removed from the old box prior to the scheduled engineer's visit...

Good to see I'm not the only victim of that!

Windows 11 comes bearing THAAS, Trojan Horse as a service

Hmm. Quite dramatic. I have already dealt with the matter. I ran up a copy of Windows 11 to see what all the fuss was and was put off by the fact that it was impossible to install without first creating/supplying a Microsoft account. It went on from there - accounts for everything and not playing well when taken offline.

I am presently testing Linux so as to be able to switch come the time when my computer dies/fails and the only kit out there is Windows 11 contaminated.

In fact, so strong is my determination to never move to 11, I am even considering using Apple kit...

Just saying.

Windows 11: Meet the new OS, same as the old OS (or close enough)

Installed

Hmm. I read all the stuff on the hardware requirements - then read about it (allegedly) being installed on a Nokia phone and a Raspberry Pi. So I figured I'd install it on a virtual machine and have a peek.

I had to hack the thing to get it to ignore the missing TPM 2.0 - but once done, it was sweet. Except...

Goodness! First you cannot install it without using an online M$ account. With 10 you yanked out the Ethernet cable and went from there (replacing it on the next screen). That doesn't (seem) to work with 11. But it gets worse - far worse.

A great many of the built-in apps - aren't. They are installed upon first use - via the M$ Store (a bit like Smart cars claiming they were the most online purchased cars - dealer would process your order when you were sitting in front of them - via an online portal - it's called massaging the figures - MS Store is going to become popular - NOT!)

THEN - if that isn't enough - you are REQUIRED to create a login ID/password to use/unlock each. Edge logs you in transparently - but the photo viewer doesn't.

I played for a while before it sucked the life out of me.

When the time comes for me to buy a new PC (in the event of my current computer dying), then I won't be touching Windows 11. I said that about 10, but I relented upon finding ways around the way MS wanted to make me work - but it was a mighty close call. However, 11 has nailed the coffin shut and added a big heavy weight on top to make sure no nails are pushed out...

Stony-faced Google drags Android Things behind the cowshed. Two shots ring out

"Beyond that, it seems like the best option is to switch to another platform with long-term support."

Frankly, if Long Term Support is expected/required, I'd advocate NEVER touching Google in the first place.

But then, what do I know. I've barely a billion, oops, million, no, thousand, still no, hundred Dollars to my name.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a 56-year-old satellite burning up in the sky spotted by sharp school kids

Relatively safe

While is is likely that most will fail to make it to the surface, the fact is that with so much of the Earth's surface given over to water or uninhabited areas, what DOES make it to the surface would be unlikely to hit anyone.

Yee-es...

However, can the same be said about Amazon delivery drones?

Just wondering out loud - sorry.

You want a Y2K crash? FINE! Here's a poorly computer

Won't Happen...

Ah, I worked through the Y2K era and had such fun!

All went well, and because there were no problems (we worked hard), everyone (that's management) claimed it had been hyped up and demanded that we now justify our overtime etc.

At home my 14-day programmable VCR went on the blink when it failed to handle 2000 in the date...

We're almost into the third decade of the 21st century and we're still grading security bugs out of 10 like kids. Why?

Same old, same old...

Since the days of Windows 95, upon booting the system checks/maps network drives BEFORE initialising the WiFi. The result is an error report/notification upon a reboot.

It isn't as if Microsoft haven't noticed this. I reported it as a tester on windows 95, NT4 and Windows 10. When the simple stuff is never done because the 'bells and whistles' to attract non-IT-savvy people/users has priority, we will for ever be plagued by bugs that never seem to be correctly prioritised.

Just saying...

TalkTalk bollocked after fibre marketing emails found to be full of sh!t

Re: RE: The Bionic Man

Billing your parents for 6 months after they left? How about billing a widowed mother for 9 months when she didn't have a service with the - hadn't requested a service - and was happy with her BT provided phone and broadband? And when the matter was taken to CISAS (one of the Ofcom arbitrators) TalkTalk's defence document contained lie after lie which were easy to show for what they were because I had kept ALL communications from them to my mother.

They lied to CISAS. They lied to me. They lied to my mother. They claimed what my mother and I suggested (that is WAS possible to agree a service without actually being known to the hapless victim) - was IMPOSSIBLE. And yet, CISAS found against TalkTalk and stated that it had happened. Part of the recompense was an apology to my mother, along with an explanation. It was roughly: Sorry you became upset over something, and you did something but we were not able to fix it properly in good time. NOT an apology OR explanation of what had happened (as confirmed by CISAS). So, liars AND taking CISAS (and Ofcom) for fools.

And taking their customers for fools as well, it seems.