Posts by that one in the corner

DHL named most-spoofed brand in phishing

Just taking advantage of DHL's reputation

The phishing would not be so realistic if it wasn't such a common occurrence for packages to vanish, or drivers be unable to spot the "Smallville Welcomes Careful Drivers" sign (then insist you really live in Bludhaven), or "but the street only goes up to number 35" (look around the corner!)...

So far, DHL is the only company who had me resorting to phoning both the Inland Revenue and the Law Society on the same day, trying to resolve the situation.

All the other carriers, just phoning direct or a couple of emails got things reasonably well sorted. I know there'll be a pile of "well, UPS/RM/Whatever-hermes-is-called-now managed to crush my parcel/drown my cat/set fire to my house" but compared to my feelings about DHL...

IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

Re: Maybe, just maybe, IBM might have a point?

If you're referring to the events of the last few of weeks then they weren't listening to what *anyone* was saying, businesses weren't special in that regard!

Re: Maybe, just maybe, IBM might have a point?

Advantageous for who - IBM or the population of the UK?

No, wait, I forgot: "What is good for IBM is good for the UK", eh?

How I made a Chrome extension for converting Reg articles to UK spelling

Re: Cant spell or count

(curse commenting in Android, this got cut off)

Dans la magnifique langue française

* 1,000 = mille

* 10,000 = dix mille

* 100,000 = cent mille

* 1,000,000 = un million

* 10,000,000 = dix millions

* 100,000,000 = cent millions

* 1,000,000,000 = un milliard

* 1,000,000,000,000 = un billion

Re: Cant spell or count

> Perhaps the AC would change his tune a trifle...

Why would he?

Wikipedia: "In Britain, however, under the influence of American usage, the short scale came to be increasingly used. In 1974, Prime Minister Harold Wilson confirmed that the government would use the word billion only in its short scale meaning (one thousand million)."

So after American (note that) influence, the PM said and did a Stupid Thing.

> the British officially depreciated the long billion

Nope - not "The British", let alone "officially", but just government publications, back in 1974.

Back in 2003: A few weeks ago on Radio 4 someone made a comment to the effect of "...since we have now adopted the billion as being one thousand million..." and I nearly fell off my chair.

Re: What a lot of comments!

Wear your LOHAN tee-shirt with pride.

Re: Kaliphornia

Bag, just taking the piss wouldn't need the "hypocrite" jibe.

The backing will be quite simple: red cloth, gold lettering and marbled endleaves. No dustcover.

Re: Ugh

> uninterestingly professional

How long until that spreads?

First they came for our authors' words.

Then they came for our commentard nicknames.

The Universe doesn't care, and never will.

Yikes. Overkill or what!

Comparing this piffling argument over a single website with the rest of the things the Universe doesn't care about, like - literally every other thing Humankind has ever achieved, including evolving into existence in the first place!

What a bummer, to be reminded of that over a weekend.

Oh look, over there, a Bleak Abyss to peer into.

AN issue? One could scribe enough on that topic to fill at least two issues and an introductory pamphlet.

Are you insinuating ... that Americans are unable to understand British English?

Maybe the American readers themselves are able to understand, but American publishers don't believe that. To the extent that British authors (no names, no pack drill, Stross, stop fidgeting) will Americanize their books themselves to avoid having them butchered when the publishers attempt the job themselves. Leaving us with only the pre-yanked version, reading a Brit writer's accurate description of London life - up until we thud into a Friday night take-out bag of fries.

Re: "Biting the hand that feeds IT" dropped

> Not entirely dropped but moved to the page bottom

No doubt hoping that out of sight is out of mind. Of the new owners, at least.

One last, brave, attempt to keep the old ways alive. Though we've brought it to their attention now, how long until it is truly out of site?

Does it correct the directions as well?

You know, the US use of "out" when they really mean "in"; the growing inability to use "take", substituting "bring" instead.

Re: I remember...

We still have two competing rag and bone men round here.

Sadly, they moved on with times - instead of 'orse 'n' cart and a good pair o' lungs, they both drive around the villages in small lorries with a recorded call on 30 second repeat. Although tradition is kept by the calls being so knackered that unless you know what they're saying you haven't a hope of understanding it!

Language is a virus

William S. Burroughs came up with the idea but, yes, Laurie Anderson did write a good song about it, amongst their other collaborations. See them together in "Home of the Brave".

PS in all honesty, I'd stick with Anderson's material, far more accessible. Clumsy Angel boots and all.

Que es mas macho, lightbulb or schoolbus?

Nor in China

Absolutely. When we visited China our guide had a superb English accent, which she learnt in China, and took great joy in using the British vernacular. During the long coach rides we all enjoyed such things as arguing over how to pronounce "scone" and coming up with different words relating to walking (IIRC she knew them all except for "galumph").

Re: But some of us prefer the Encheferizer.........

When I first came across ValSpeak, I was most disappointed that it didn't convert everything into instructions involving old washing up bottles and sticky-backed plastic. And now, let's see how John is getting along with that elephant...

NASA picks its UFO-hunting – sorry – unidentified aerial phenomena-hunting team

Re: Nadia Drake is Frank Drake's daughter

Frank Drake was part of the team on the Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Disc, but the credit really goes to Carl Sagan, as the originator of the plaque and project director on the disc.

Jim Moray tells the tale: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RPxCN8pNxWM

Re: The evidence of something is very strong

Well, we did find finally realise that Atmospheric Sprites are real, after pooh-pooing the reports.

Film worked better than digital

The Aliens are cleverer than we are - they hide from us now by taking advantage of the flaws in all these digital cameras. Moving in time with the Rolling Shutter. You know all those odd bits that They are telling you are "just JPEG artifacts"?

Re: "there may be, on average, one civilization out there in existence per galaxy"

Hmm, wasn't that Stephen Hawking's line, not Brian's? As The Hawk mowed Prof. Cox down.

NASA OKs spacewalks, upgrades helmets after fishbowl mishap

Re: Cheap TV

Soft, not smooth - aren't I supposed to get better at remembering the old stuff? Have I had breakfast yet? Who are you? Nurse!

Re: Cheap TV

According to the Radio Times, Star Cops got around the problem by smearing the inside of the helmet with washing up liquid.

Bit sticky as, being a police show, they kept finding suited bodies with, so the camera was sure to identify them, their faces pressed against the visor.

So the hands that do dishes really were as smooth as their faces.

Boffins shatter data transmission speed record

1.8Pbit/s - that can be filled easily

Sod the cat videos, get this rolled out to the astronomers so we can have even better and bigger baseline interferometers!

Re: Are boffins sort of like puffins who can solve tech things?

> Honestly, just find it odd for a tech site to use headlines that belong in a British tabloid

You did notice the big red banner at the top of the page? And all the muttering that El Reg really isn't its proper self without the .co.uk?

To make this computer work, users had to press a button. Why didn't it work? Guess

Re: Bad design

> try asking someone to saddle a horse

You never ask, you tell:

Smithers, have my horse ready by Noon.

Re: Bad design

Hopefully, with a leather strap around the side-opening bonnet and a pull control on the dash that lowers the gramophone tone arm for a little travelling music.

Re: Bad design

and if they can't touch the pedals - there is always wooden blocks and string.

Short Round, step on it!

Re: If I have to look in the manual (absolute last resort of course) it's a really bad design!

So if one morning you decide to have an extra ten minute snooze, you crawl out of bed, boot the PC, ssh to the alarm clock, edit crontab, log out, get back into bed and hope to drift for a bit, even though you're now wondering if you needed to correct for the end of Summer Time...

Mask gizmo wirelessly transmits data on wearer's health

Interesting tech but great unwashed commentards want it to die?

The application to face masks provides an obvious way to fund the concept and provide a hook to get someone to get this bulk manufacturable and cheap enough to put into production (the combo of PCB, adhesion layer and ruggedness).

Damn shame, though, if all fell through because of the sort of blank negativity expressed (so far) here.

Where else might checking fit and monitoring physiological signals, could be useful? Especially if it was mass produced and cheap to at leat try?

Safety clothing? Are there any use cases where you'd like to monitor if the cuffs of your coveralls are too loose? Is your breathing mask fitted properly whilst you're running around a smoke-filled building?

Get this tech and put into a pair of leggings (and maybe slippers?) - see if it could help monitor gait and improve physio results after a hip replacement, for example. Relatives who've had that op say they had to be repeatedly told to correct gaits that had been learnt over years and "felt natural" so they needed external feedback, but it isn't a large enough issue to warrant expensive monitoring devices.

Is your strapless gown working loose and about to get you cancelled because of a wardrobe malfunction on US TV?

Plenty of electronics are washable, once the battery has been disconnected. The part actually inside the mask appears to just be an interestingly designed flex PCB, so don't shove it in the washing machine but it might survive the dishwasher (if placed carefully). Certainly a hot hand wash.

its application to underpants

Hacker's Delight - they'd never manage to get trustworthy readings! Go on, log *this* in your cloud!

Infosys reverses opposition to staff taking side gigs

Not sure that the Empire can take the blame for the caste system - although the Raj certainly didn't try to get rid of it (shades of the class system), as one doesn't want to change such an ancient part of a noble culture (if one can take as much advantage of it as the previous rulers).

Team Interpol: Metaverse Police

Marched to the ATM in the Metaverse

Half way through Neal Stephenson's "REAMDE" and that is pretty much the plot[1] - and things do get pretty hairy IRL because of it!

As always, Life imitates Art

[1] Apologies if that was a spoiler, but it is a huge book and there lots more to enjoy in it.

Re: Secure by Design?

Security is a process.

*They* are secure, in their ability to process all your data. By design.

The Interpol Metaverse is "fully operational"

Has anyone told them that there is more than one server? Are they confused that they only see other police officers wandering around the virtual Lyons, even though it they asked for it to run on The Cloud just like everyone else is using?

Windows Subsystem for Android declared ready for prime time

Re: WSA or ASW?

You have made the noob mistake of thinking like someone who is fluent in English.

To the marketeers and managers, it is far more important that "Windows" comes first otherwise, by the time they reach the third word and they've forgotten how the sentence started, they would just think the meeting was all about how to get Windows apps working on Windows - that meeting is on Tuesdays.

"Because we CAN!" (maniacal laugh)

Aside from (see title) is there any real value in this?

Even after asking the younger and/or hipper members of my coterie, all of the things we do on Android are far easier on the full-sized PC, decent keyboard and all.[1]

The *only* way an Android version ever wins is the portability of the device.

Even for things that the PC can not do, like take photos better than webcam quality: I could trivially upgrade the PC with a DSLR and USB cable but there really isn't anything worth snapping in my home office!

[1] before you ask, no, so far we haven't found any cases where it is genuinely "easier on our App"

Millennials, Gen Z actually suck at workplace security

Re: EY did not define ranges for the four generations included in the report.

> trying to be too clever

by also (mis)using words - "very odd" is boring, "very unique" has a q in it, so much intellectual, very dictionary.

We've seen things you people wouldn't believe. A planet, dense as a marshmallow, that would float on water

Where did you get that bathtub?

I don't believe these tales that someone has a bathtub big enough to float planets in. You'd never get the whole tub down a Hyperspace bypass, even with flashing yellow lights.

My theory is that this "tub" is an big rubber pool, pink, that gets rolled up and sent lengthways. Sewing this together caused the shortage of Ningis that prevented anyone else from having an entire Triganic Pu. Leading to the inevitable crash of the Galactibanks once the Altarian Dollar tanked following that disastrous "mini-budget" the week before the Presidency became vacant.

Saturn (and this new one) being mostly gas, with a small solid in the middle, more of a fart in the bathtub.

Gravity - Nature's bubblebath.

How GitHub Copilot could steer Microsoft into a copyright storm

Re: No Solidarity with A.I.'s run for profit!

Huh? The Crown Jewels aren't public domain in any way, shape or form! What are you prattling on about?

Hang on, you think that "public domain" means "is displayed for the public to view"? Or even vice versa? No.

Try a bit of simple research, such as: https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome/ or https://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/articles/what-is-copyright

Re: "... why they chose a particular solution."

That *sounds* like a perfectly reasonable concept - unfortunately, the state within the ML model needn't be laid out with clearly obvious chunks of plain text that it is horfing up, instead it is spread around in a (to the eye) random pile of weightings and triggers from one layer to the next. Instead of just copying "lines 2081 to 3033 from file fred.cpp" it is going through a weird process that re-assembles that source (or something that is so like it as to be considered the same - e.g. just changing variable names).

A (not great) analogy would be a compressed text file. To the eye, you have a jumbled mess: a dictionary of fiddly bit of what is clearly text but nonsensical and a pile of arbitrary number. But if you run the decompression process it pulls one tiny bit from this location in the dictionary, a couple of copies of that bit one after the other until, ta-da, you have a sizeable chunk of readable text. Ah ha, you say, but the "pile of arbitrary numbers" is clearly in order and you can mark which ones refer to what part of the final output. True. Sadly, the related information in the ML model is spread randomly all over the place and, unlike the compressor, there was nothing in the "learning" process that knows (or needed to know) where any of it is.

Trying to make ML models explain what they are doing is a topic of ongoing research. Not that the people chucking ML at everything an hoping ome of it sticks care about that or are putting their money into it.

Re: Just one question

Many web servers are open source - if my website contents are copyrighted, why do I serve them using Apache?

Re: "just like with a compiler"

> Compilers are dying, and language servers are rising in their place

Hmm, what? I don't see any signs that compilers are going to go away now or at any time in the foreseeable future.

> a file format that formally includes metadata about the source, like copyright critical sections, language server state

Trying to understand what this is supposed to mean, a web search for "language server state" throws up things like:

"LSIF is basically a way to persist language server state" from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22446984

or

"However, if you have a simple use case where embedded content can be easily handled without context or language server state," from https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/embedded-languages

Both of these - and all the similar hits - are just talking about using a "Language Server Protocol" server to provide super-duper features to source code editors. LSP servers contain lots of language-aware features (such as, ooh, the front ends from compilers) but are otherwise unrelated to running a good old compiler to generate your exes.

> a file format that formally includes metadata about the source

Like, in the source code file itself? Such as annotations within comments, laid out in, ooh, another formally defined language suited to the purpose - you could define one using XML; either way around - have the XML as a comment in the source or have the source as one or more text blocks within the XML elements. That last coud even lead to going the full Literate Programming route (not necessarily using Knuth's web/weave tools, as they don't look for the metadata you want to enforce).

Notice how the above formats are also - text! Text files *are* a good way to keep lots of the metadata about your source and its attributions, if only so that you can actually pass it on to the legal team. You can even keep the digital signature as text in the same field, to prove it hasn't been modified. About the only thing that I'd not automatically propose being text in the source file is the version control history (although VCS using simple text files is quite doable and has advantages, although speed isn't one of them).

Liz Truss ousted as UK prime minister, outlived by online lettuce

Bestest hair

I could only wish that my hair was so colour-fast.

Re: Face like thunder

Podoum? PODIUM??

That is a LECTERN!

Bah, youngsters, believing everything they hear on Pointless.

Now, if they elect the lettuce to Number 10 (could do worse) and it gives a speech whilst plonked on top of the lectern, *then* it would a podium. Though, like an oyster, a lettuce has very few feet (if any). Oh, I'm taking my lettuce for walkies...

Mmmm, thank you Nurse. What a day it's been.

This makes me so happy

It's like a return to the Glory Days of El Reg, when we had to point out "bootnotes" to someone demanding to know what the IT angle is. Thank you, thank you.

Ah, memories. What days we used to share.

This maglev turntable costs more than an average luxury electric car

Re: analogue is just a hotchpotch of compromises

Remember to wait 48 minutes after drinking before listening, so that the heavy water can reach your inner ear, where the extra mass dampens unwanted resonances.