Posts by EricB123

Lawmakers propose TLDR Act because no one reads Terms of Service agreements

Would you like to print that?

My favorite sites give me an option to print out the terms of service tome. 2 toner cartridges later...

Could BYOB (Bring Your Own Battery) offer a solution for charging electric vehicles? Microlino seems to think so

Re: LHD vs RHD

This appeals to many millenials. They don't want the expenses of car ownership. Car ownership is starting to look to be more of a boomer thing.

Alien life on Super-Earth can survive longer than us due to long-lasting protection from cosmic rays

Wear a Wide Brimmed Hat

That was what Mr. James Watt (Prez Regan's secretary of the Interior) had to say. Along with sunglasses as to more radiation from the developing hole in the ozone layer.

Different frequency of radiation, but you get the idea. Science above politics always.

Bless you: Yep, it's IBM's new name for tech services spinoff and totally not a hayfever medicine

I Know What it Is!

That's the pink lotion I put on my mosquito bites to stop the itching.

As the FCC finally starts tackling its dreadful broadband maps, Georgia reveals just how bad they are

Re: I am NOT shocked.

I have used the internet in many countries, and with the possible exception of Indonesia everyone has superior value for their internet services. Disgusting!

'Chinese wall'? Who uses 'Chinese wall'? Well, IBM did, and it actually means 'firewall'

Resistor Color Code

Bad boys rape......

Federal Communications Commission proposed stricter rules on how telco carriers should report data breaches

Re: Wait, what?

Either that, or "We take the security of our customers as our top priority."

Microsoft poaches Apple chip expert for custom silicon

These Things Take Time

When in EE grad school, I majored in custom chip design. No interested employer in my knowledge when I graduated, of course. Now, a few decades later, custom chip design expertise is hot. I guess it's all in the timing.

Microsoft tweaks Teams and Viva to help bridge gap between frontline workers and their managers, among other things

Dream a Little Dream on Me

"Want a pay rise and paid leave?"

Wasn't that Peggy Lee?

Canon: Chip supplies are so bad that our ink cartridges will look as though they're fakes

Software Busts Printer

When I was in school some bonehead student wrote a few lines of assembly code that took control of the mainframe printer and not only suppressed the CR but kept the printhead at 1,1. The printer's ink ribbon caught on fire.

I know this because when I went to pick up my batch job I got yelled at. Turned out to be another student with the same name. Honest!

Shortages are Our Friend

Talk about every cloud has a silver lining!

No defence for outdated defenders as consumer AV nears RIP

Norton's PR is Stupid

"We’re so confident in our antivirus and malware protection that if you’re a current Norton service subscriber and you get an infection on your device that our experts can’t remove, you get a full refund. That’s assurance you can’t get from free software."

Really???

The inevitability of the Windows 11 UI: New Notepad enters the beta channel

Back from the Museum of Horrors

I think it was called "DEVLIN"

It takes more clicks to reject their cookies than accept them, so France fines Facebook and Google over €200m

I Couldn't Have Said it Better

"It is also unlikely because it requires motivation and 'guts' to do this."

Exactly why the USA will never do this.

How's 2022 going for you so far? Hopefully better than it is for IBM Cloud

Nothing Important Here

Cassette Basic, anyone?

A moment of tension as the James Webb Space Telescope stretches sunshield on way to L2 destination

Re: Where is it? Check this...

Another order of diazepam for the control crew please.

Developer creates ‘Quite OK Image Format’ – but it performs better than just OK

Re: Colour me impressed...

Not to mention downhill skiing on digital TV looks terrible. Not that we will be watching much of that anytime soon.

Thank you, FAQ chatbot, but if I want your help I'll ask for it

Re: I am here to help. What can I do for you today?

"Good reason just to buy from someone else!"

You have found either a company selling goods or services that doesn't do this????

Do tell!

Re: I am here to help. What can I do for you today?

"At least its customer discouragement strategy does not include Muzak and "this call is very important" statements every 30 seconds for hours."

Really? That sounds a bit like a good day to me.

US grounds investors in Chinese drone maker DJI over 'Xinjiang human rights abuses'

Re: Those that live in glass houses

I just DuckDuckGo'ed "orange haired biped" an it suggested "Mahna Mahna" from The Muppets. She certainly doesn't seem all that cruel to me.

Google Chrome's upcoming crackdown on ad-blockers and other extensions still really sucks, EFF laments

It (almost) Worked for Apple

Just say the current extensions are needed to block child porn, and the replacements will allow child porn to become rampant.

Popular password manager LastPass to be spun out from LogMeIn

D. I. Y

After hearing about the trackers in password managers, I would think just keeping a self stored password, even a relatively simple one, affords greater protection.

Study says SEC 10-K not fit for purpose when it comes to Big Tech, and the companies are using that to their advantage

Wow, That's Fast!

From Wikipedia -

"On January 3, 1996, the 104th Congress of the United States amended or repealed sections of the Communications Act of 1934 with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It was the first major overhaul of American telecommunications policy in nearly 62 years."

No wonder big business can get away with anything.

Flash? Nu-uh. Windows 11 users complain of slow NVMe SSD performance

From Startup Mode to "Ultracompetitive Mode"

I was a beta tester for Windows 95. It was an unbelievable amount of work each night. A CD would be on my doorstep every evening and I had to run a series of tests on my computer and report my findings to Microsoft (either by phone or CompuServe). But, they certainly were very appreciative for my efforts. Dinners at The Space Needle, beer busts for all of the beta testers, a night before party in downtown Seattle, and an invitation for the Win 95 all day party at the Microsoft campus. Loads of free software.

Somehow this company, which really appreciated working with the community of computer nerds became a selfish, "take it or leave it" company. I have heard the new term for this is "ultracompetitive behavior".

Whatever the term is, it just truly sucks.

South Korea sets site reliability engineering standards for Big Tech

Multinational American Companies?

I'm staying out of the argument of who pays for the increased bandwidth, but I can certainly sympathize with the Korean government about informing Koreans about outages IN KOREAN. As an American expat, whenever I have to deal with a so called American "International Company" about anything I run into problems.

Like I must send the document to America on 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of paper. They say they have never heard of A4 paper. Then I call my American bank to change my phone number. Their entry system only accepts "+1" as a country code. Or I need to send three utility bills that I receive in the mail each month as proof of residence. "No, no mail here" I reply. They try to start an argument that every country has mail.

Out of sight, out of mind I suppose.

Aircraft can't land safely due to interference with upcoming 5G C-band broadband service

Just Say it Like it Is

“Harmful interference to the radio altimeter could cause these systems to operate in an unexpected way.”

Translated in plain English - "crash".

Apple files fresh appeal to stop court order demanding external payment systems in iOS apps

We Need Our Jobs

I think the current USA justice system was mythologically from the "Judges Full Employment Act of 19xx".

Bad news for Tencent: Chinese companies steer employees away from Weixin or WeChat

Perhaps Maybe

Perhaps maybe the Chinese see all of the damage these mega anti-social media companies are causing and are taking a sledge hammer approach to the problem?

Australia will force social networks to identify trolls, so they can be sued for defamation

Re: The ultimate nanny state

As did a mechanical pencil I bought in California as well.

Apple sues 'amoral 21st century mercenaries' NSO for infecting iPhones with Pegasus spyware

It's ok if...

Anytime you need a reason to write spyware, just say the world needs this spyware to stop pedophiles. Then it's perfectly ok to do almost anything.

Russia's orbital insanity is almost beyond redemption – but there's space for improvement

Awakening

Well, if it wasn't for the Russians, america might have never had manned space missions.

China's hypersonic glider didn't just orbit Earth, it 'fired a missile' while at Mach 5

Re: Money Can't Buy Everything

Hey, I made a railgun when I was a kid. The paper clip that it shot didn't exactly reach supersonic speed, but it did work.

Money Can't Buy Everything

Even though the US spends far more than China. Of course, a lot of the money is to buy things like HaloLens, useless tanks and multi billion dollar F-35s that almost work.

Amazon India execs questioned after sellers allegedly use site to smuggle marijuana

Death Penalty?

I wonder if India's drug laws are as strict as Indonesia. The international entrance form to enter Indonesia says something Like "The penalty for bringing in narcotics to the Islamic Republic of Indonesia IS DEATH. And your signature goes right under the IS DEATH part.

Not that the execs would ever get as much as a wrist slap in India though.

IBM researcher suing for age discrimination blames CEO Arvind Krishna for his ousting

Same Old Same Old

Why does America even bother to have age discrimination laws when they make defending them almost impossible? Oh, I know now. So they can look like a caring government but still allow corporations that lobby, I mean bribe, the politicians to stay happy. The politicians get the best of both worlds, and anyone else gets the shaft.

Another brick in the (kitchen) wall: Users report frozen 1st generation Google Home Hubs

Re: just paying 4-5 years up front rental

"But the replacements will surely be better. At spying."

Why oh why do people actually pay to give Google and Amazon a bigger pipe into their homes? Is having an Android phone not enough already?

Sheffield Uni cooks up classic IT disaster in £30m student project: Shifting scope, leadership changes, sunk cost fallacy

Once Again, My Words of Wisdom

The 7 Phases of Project Design

1) Wild enthusiasm

2) Disillusionment

3) Chaos

4) Search for the guilty

5) Punishment of the innocent

6) Promotion of the non-participants

7) Definition of the requirements

This happens almost every time!

Workplace surveillance booming during pandemic, destroying trust in employers

It's also illegal to put LSD in the reservoir

Yes, California had a law that prohibited putting LSD in a reservoir.

My point is that it is impossible to make enough laws to cover every possible stupid thing someone can do. If management wants to act like assholes, it's difficult to legislate the problem away. Not that we should stop trying...

Billion-dollar US broadband bonanza awaits Biden's blessing – what you need to know

Why does the American government (aka taxpayer, aka some government no limit credit card) subsidizes corporations that are already immensely profitable?

Investment app Robinhood: Extortionist tricked our support desk and made off with customer information

Re: "they set aside the uninvested cash and earn interest on it."

Many developing countries have to pay decent interest to borrow any money. There is a huge world out there besides america and Europe.

The return of the turbo button: New Intel hotness causes an old friend to reappear

NEC V20!

When I pushed the turbo button my my NEC V20 I could hum along at 2.7 Norton SI's!

Judging by the way your face lit up, my inbox just got more attractive

Re: Wielding a vacuum cleaner...

I always thought El Reg subscribers all had robotic vacuum cleaners. Now I realize this is a falsehood.

Japanese bloke collared after using AI software to uncensor smut and flogging it

Re: Silly censorship

So that's why my favorite porn channel is so pixalited!

It's 'near-impossible to escape persistent surveillance' by American ISPs, says FTC

Re: What keeps grass greener

"poo-poo kah-kah"?

"When pigs fly"?

Almost enough to make me miss the profanity from a few weeks ago

Re: Poor sods

I would much prefer the word "bribing" instead of "lobbying" to be used.

Re: All that's left

You stole my thunder. I was just about to post a snarky reply to the "solution". Except using far more abrasive language than "when pigs fly".

Think your phone is snooping on you? Hold my beer, says basic physics

Re: Encryption everywhere, 1 time passcodes for the paranoid!

I saw a tempest PC back in the day. It was housed in a PC AT box, super heavy, super expensive and was quite a bit slower than the RF riadiating version.

Re: This is mildly terrifying

Sort of like having to pay the phone company an extra $1 a month for a phone that was any color other than black.

Re: This is mildly terrifying

"Note to USAfolk, 'Callan' was a UK TV series featuring an MI5 hit man,"

Thanks so much for thinking of us non-Brit readers. A rare courtesy from the Continent. Can I call Britian "the Continent" these days?

Oops, they did it again – rogue Soyuz spurt gave ISS an attitude problem

Re: Previous Incident

The f-ups alone could make an engrossing movie.