* Posts by Efros

1198 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Sep 2008

Facebook to forcefeed you web ads, whether you like it or not: Ad blocker? Get the Zuck out!

Efros

They seem to be under the impression

that we like ad content, and indeed won't use FB if the ads aren't there. In my case the opposite is true, FB is a means for me to keep in fairly regular contact with relatives and friends on 3 continents, the only thing that makes it usable is a collection of filters in ABP along with the facebook annoyances blocker. (http://facebook.adblockplus.me/)

Filters for ABP

facebook.com###u_0_0

facebook.com##._4-u2._5v6e.cardRightCol._4-u8

facebook.com##._4-u2._19ah._2ph_._4-u8

facebook.com##.rhcFooterWrap

facebook.com##.back

facebook.com##.stickyHeaderWrap.clearfix

Google Chrome will beat Flash to death with a shovel: Why... won't... you... just... die!

Efros

Re: Education...

Unfortunately this is true, largely due to the educational content being built up over many years there is a financial reluctance on behalf of the content originators to update to current technology. I teach a couple of online courses and a lot of the content is flash, java or shockwave based. All of these cause our students varying degrees of problems which are compounded by the locked down configurations school issued laptops have here in the US. I have no control over the content, I merely deliver the content and put out fires while the courses are running, last semester they were more like forest fires. I have been promised that the Fall semester will bring shiny new working content that will not have these issues... I'm not holding my breath.

AT&T dinged for $7.75m after letting scammers gouge customers (again)

Efros

Re: Unfortunately this means fek-all...

Jail the fekkers!

Windows 10 Anniversary Update is borking boxen everywhere

Efros

Only issue

was a recalcitrant Synaptics touchpad v clickpad driver clash. This is not a new issue and has dogged HP laptops (and other manufacturers I believe) since windows 8.0. Essentially every new Windows update/release identifies the touchpad as a clickpad and installs the driver assigning the most used gestures to fixed functions. I use the three finger left and right swipe to go back and forth on webpages etc and this effing driver uses it to alt tab. I have to disable the driver update in the group policy editor. 4 machines and this is the only issue so far, fingers crossed.

Symantec appoints first cybersecurity czar to woo hacking talent

Efros

Shurely

Czarina

Render crashing PCs back to their component silicon: They deserve it

Efros

I tell my family I threaten the PC with a screwdriver and that I'm not afraid to use it.

Efros

Rinse and Repeat

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

All the while rhythmically smashing the recalcitrant PC into ever smaller pieces with a 15lb mash hammer.

The developer died 14 years ago, here's a print out of his source code

Efros

Re: Portrayal of computer tech guys in films/tv.

Not confined to tech, remember Highlander? The scene where the woman specialist in ancient swords carbon dates the samurai sword? Couple of issues with this, the amount of carbon required for this is not insignificant when compared to the amount of carbon in the steel making up the sword and the size of the sliver removed from the concrete support. There may be other issues as to what the origin of the carbon used in the manufacture of the sword. However, the major issue was that the shiny shiny instrument that was used to carbon date the sword was in fact a Perkin Elmer 3030 Atomic Spectrometry setup. Really good for determining the concentration of trace elements in the steel on an element by element basis but fucking useless for carbon dating. Sorry if this is too specific but stuff like that ruins otherwise entertaining movies.

Efros

Re: Portrayal of computer tech guys in films/tv.

Indeed an 8TB backup, actually closer to 6TB but it was an 8TB disk, took 70 hours to complete.

Don't want to vote for Clinton or Trump? How about this woman who says Wi-Fi melts kids' brains?

Efros

Re: She's not wrong

Even something as simple as an Airfix kit teaches a kid how to follow a set of written instructions in the correct order. Try getting a teenager to do that in a lab, without them asking "what am I supposed to do?"...

Efros

Re: Now That Bernie is Out....

You are completely bananas, Bernie and Trump have absolutely nothing in common apart from both of them being in their 70s. Trump in the Oval Office is the fulfilment of Putin's wettest dream. The chaos that would ensue in the western world would be cataclysmic both economically and societally. For Obama to essentially to wipe the floor with him in the White House during a totally unrelated press conference speaks volumes about the trepidation there is about this ignorant twunt getting into office. We're one week into the actual election and he is well on the way to alienating the sensible republicans (I know there ain't many) he just refused to endorse Speaker Ryan and McCain in their upcoming elections, he sees it as payback, but then he is an 8 year old.

Chinese Android smartphone firm: It packs a dedicated crypto chip

Efros

Re: Am I the only one

No you're not, but not through choice. The only network available in this area (Central Maine USA) uses CDMA and those are a bit like rocking horse shit... rare. Even when you find one the operator then throws up barriers to actually getting the damn thing registered on their network, I just find it easier to outright buy a "previously owned" handset from the cellphone company so as not to be paying $750 over 2 years for one. One of the perils of living in a free market economy where everyone and their brother is either operating or striving to operate in a monopolistic manner.

US state sues Comcast for $100m in row over 'worthless' repair plans

Efros

Corporations

need their CEOs to be responsible for their actions. You break the law badly enough we have a rather fetching orange jump suit for you to wear for the next few years, while we garnish your pension and confiscate your mansion to compensate your victims.

Google and GlaxoSmithKline fling £540m at bioelectronic meds firm

Efros

Re: No...

"Over my cold, dead corpse..."

Probably part of the plan.

All roads lead to Rome as Irish seminary gripped by Grindr scandal

Efros

Hey

It's legal and a helluva lot better than some of the stuff their predecessors got into.

What's ordered in Vegas, doesn't stay in Vegas? $6.7m of printer ink 'stolen by office worker'

Efros

Re: accounting 101 anyone

Similar story, bottle of Argon was ordered. Chap in the stores receiving queried the amount (about 700 quid at the time) for a single bottle of Ar (usually about 30 quid) seems the lab tech who had ordered it had ordered semiconductor grade instead of lab grade. Difference between 99.9999% and 99.998% purity.

Stop us if you've heard this one before: Telcos try to kill net neutrality

Efros

They really are a

bunch of money grubbing twunts.

Windows 10 pain: Reg man has 75 per cent upgrade failure rate

Efros

Puzzling

I have installed W10 on two decade old machines who have never had their BIOSes updated, no issues other than the rather long installation time.

Don't use a VPN in United Arab Emirates – unless you wanna risk jail and a $545,000 fine

Efros

Interesting

When I use my VPN in incognito mode the home page is Google.ae, the VPN is supposed to be UK based. No clue what's going on there.

Cats, dogs starve as web-connected chow chute PetNet plays dead

Efros

Ravenous pussies

Fnaaar!

Cue Benny Hill music.

Lenovo: Our gear will be 10% more pricey from 1 August

Efros
Joke

You have to remember

that manufacturers have the added expense of making these devices right hand drive, I'm sure they're making an astute financial decision here.

BOFH: Free as in free beer or... Oh. 'Free Upgrade'

Efros

Re: Ah, printers. brings back so many memories...

+1 on the phasers, we still have 2 of them running on our building, 10 years old and still producing quality prints with no fuss.

Efros

I wonder

if they have the mode our Xerox Workcentres display on a random basis, Print to æther . You know the one where you print your document and it disappears into the æther never to see the light of day, despite the fact the printer reports that is decomposing the file. Seems the decomposition goes too far with the body completely disintegrating.

Apple Watch craze over before it started: Wrist-puter drags market screaming off a cliff

Efros

I doubt

there was any long term market anyway, the number of teenagers I see wearing a watch is minimal, if they want the time it's just another excuse to pull out the smart phone.

Seagate in 10TB drive brand brainstorm

Efros

And what's wrong with

Disky McDiskFace?

the people need to know!

GOP delegates suckered into connecting to insecure Wi-Fi hotspots

Efros

Yahoo! mail!

jeez the Republicans have moved on, I thought they would be AOL, you know Assholes On Line.

Star Trek Beyond: An unwatchable steaming pile of tribble dung

Efros

Star Trek Beyond: An unwatchable steaming pile of dung

Nah come on tell us what you really thought of it... no beating around the bush now!

What keeps former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani awake at night?

Efros

Giuliani's

performance at the RNC will keep him awake if Trump ever gets into the Oval office. At least I hope it does.

Hardball hacker thrown in the cooler for 46 months for guessing rival team's password

Efros

Re: clearly this much more evil than

or indeed rape if you happen to be an ivy league athlete.

Did mock cop bot trot on fraught tot? Maybe not

Efros

Looks like a job for...

Elijah Bailey!

Gaming apps, mugging and bad case of bruised Pokéballs

Efros

I think Pokemoning will become Urban Dictionary material. Ah apparently it already is

"Pokemoning (also spelled "Pokémoning") is the act of dating multiple partners (or having multiple friends) in order to collect all the desired traits that's very likely to not exist in one single individual. Named so because you "Gotta Catch 'Em All.""

Efros

Re: Runaround now

Yep around 3:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rL6B7k5M-I

Efros

Re: The whole thing

Buying the game on steam I get, and indeed have done, but forking out $100 for a Battleship in World of Warships for example is beyond me.

Efros

The whole thing

just completely confuses me. I like computer games, I play them occasionally but I'm not an obsessive person about anything so the behaviour of seemingly normal people with these "games" just completely bamboozles me. It's like the purchasing of virtual items for real money in games... why??? Don't get it.

Alleged Aussie plum plucker pleads guilty to motel tissue swipe

Efros

Perhaps munched

with some fava beans and a nice Amarone.

YouTube stars shilled for Warner Bros, screwed up, and now the FTC has written an angry letter

Efros

A bit stupid

as the game is actually pretty enjoyable.

Facebook ‘glitch’ that deleted the Philando Castile shooting vid: It was the police – sources

Efros

There is a known syndrome here in the US

It's the "Asshole Cop" syndrome, the vast majority of police here are regular people doing their job the best they can. Then there's the Asshole Cop, he/she became a cop for all the wrong reasons, sense of empowerment, bitchin' uniform, sidearm in a holster, etc not to serve their community but to serve their ego. It's they that cause most of the fuck ups and PR disasters that PDs suffer. Every PD has at least one and every officer can tell you who they are, there doesn't seem to be any selection procedure in place to actually prevent them getting into or purge them from the system. The militarisation of the police in the US has done little to help this syndrome with many cops coming from "the service" and bringing with them the arrogance that the US military seems to instill as part of their basic training, not good for community relations or policing.I live in a small rural area in New England and I have knowledge of about 4 of the local PDs and I can identify at least 1 Asshole Cop in each of those PDs.

A statement from Steven P Bong concerning alleged CV inaccuracies

Efros

Shurely

It's Kevin P. Bong!

Sociology student gets a First for dissertation on Kardashians

Efros

New Icon Required

The Kardashian Arse icon for comments on work of absolutely no value to society/civilization/existence.

Efros

Re: Printed on university toilet paper

The shiny stuff which was totally incompatible with its intended use.

Efros

Earth Shattering Stuff...

I see a bright future for this youngster... I hear Topshop are hiring.

Detroit Rock(et Fiber) City: Startup brings 10Gb service to Motown

Efros

I'd take that.

Currently $62 pcm for 20/2 Mbps. I believe the TWC Comcast merger means we will probably be looking at data caps in the near future.

Prominent Brit law firm instructed to block Brexit Article 50 trigger

Efros

Politicians

Bricking it, left, right and centre. Needs a few with backbone to actually stand up and make the decision one way or the other, unfortunately years of social selection have ensured that parliament is almost entirely populated by spineless gits.

Forget YouTube – meet ChewTube: Strangers watching millennials eat

Efros

Social eating

I thought there were specialist sites for that already... oh you mean food!

Here's how police arrested Lauri Love – and what happened next

Efros

Time to stop this

If the person was in the UK at the time of the crime then the alleged injured party should be forced to prosecute under UK law. The ridiculous potential sentences and penalties for this sort of crime in the US should be tripping switches in politicos brains (assuming they exist, the brains that is), that something is not fair and appropriate. Potentially 99 years for this compared with 6 months for rape.

Hillary Clinton: My promises to America's tech industry

Efros

Re: "defer student loan payments"

Believe it or not the fees in UK Universities (excluding Scotland!) are approaching those of the US, admittedly the repayment terms and interest in the US are more onerous. Western democracies generally need to wake up and stop profiteering in educating our future generations, education benefits not just them but the societies they live in.

You know how that data breach happened? Three words: eBay, hard drives

Efros

Re: Physical destruction is best

Nuke it from space... It's the only way to be sure.

Mine's the anorak...

'I urge everyone to fight back' – woman wins $10k from Microsoft over Windows 10 misery

Efros

Good for her

M$ lawyers should be thinking about sorting this sort of thing out before it gets to court, $10,090 or even 10 times that is chickenfeed compared to the bad publicity.

Parliament takes axe to 2nd EU referendum petition

Efros

Re: wtf?

The type that listens to people who although citizens are not actually resident at the time. Unlike the arbitrary 15 year cut off for voter registration for the referendum.

IT consultant gets 4 years' porridge for tax fraud

Efros

hmmm

No doubt he deserved penal servitude of some kind, there has to be some fairness in the application of sentences. Financial crime, hit him financially, big time, take all that he has, if necessary. When physically dangerous people walk away from horrible acts with little retribution or consequences that don't reflect the seriousness of the crime then something is wrong.