Posts by Stuart 22

Re: I too run Windows 7 and Sophos

BTW what's your plan for January 15th?

Re: Just when .eu names were making it big - in the form of spam

I have three [legitimate] clients with .eu addresses. All obtained for good reasons. One has suddenly discovered a convenient Romanian address belonging to a relative one of the directors. The two have their heads deeply ingrained in the sand and I have given up on advising them what to do. 'Cos I no longer have a clue (like EURID).

It's not business breaking but just a part of a larger area of uncertainty that is breaking business. Whether you are for or against Brexit the conduct of this government is beyond scandalous and incompetent. I still expect most of the most guilty will be funding their pensions from memoirs on how they made Britain great again (if only the other lot hadn't screwed it up).

Me? I'm into Baked Bean futures. You will either will make a fortune if catastrophy strikes or you will have a meal for life. Two way win in my book ;-)

Re: Did I miss the part about the A3?

Missing through my browser too. Methinks given the opportunity to review a £599 or £279 phone most of us would make the opposite choice to that we would make shelling out our own dosh. For most, a longer lasting battery so you can still actually use it is more value than being able to throw it 1.39m at a wall 'cos its gone flat again.

Oh and still have £320 to buy another one plus a burner phone inside a plastic bag for more challenging environments.

Been running Kubuntu & Xubuntu on ARM for 5 years. Well as croutons on ChomeOS (which neatly avoids the driver issue) - but hey they work brilliantly. Live swopping between the two on a tiny 2/16Gb laptop never ceases to amaze me.

But bring it on - the Linux apps i386/x64 only app developers need a bit of incentive to make their goodies architecture agnostic.

Re: Got the email, fixed it

No email which is good news but obviously I shouldn't assume I'm in the clear.

I presume I can wait till February 13th and carefully monitor the renewals thereafter (I have a nice little script for that). If I get a failure I assume I still have 30 days to fix the problem (mine auto-renew 60 days into the 90 day validity).

Shite of Shites!

Wow - I had brains.demon.co.uk (don't joke) and when Cliff gave us webpages was one of the first to exploit it (1996?). As I couldn't think of anything original to put up - I thought I might use other Demonite's work.

Hence 'Site of Sites'. I'd forgotten all about until a google search found the way and WayBackMachine did the rest. Here's a frontpage near the end in 1998 before I was forced to decamp to BT to get broadband or was it ISDN?: https://web.archive.org/web/19990421141318/http://www.brains.demon.co.uk

Some 'webmasters' were a little sensitive about their baby pages. Nowt changes.

PS I've forgotten the the brains.* IP (senility) AFAIR it started 158.152 ... anyway of tracking it down?

Re: ICO and the Leave campaign.

"Whereas the remainers don't even notice that they're getting fucked by the EU."

Except the EU is us - until March 29th. Then it belongs solely foreigners who can fuck us unhindered.

Well done Leave.eu for giving them control ... unless you think the Maybot of the Rovers can come back from 27-1 down. Well I suppose she could put Trump in own-goal and if only Jacob & Boris would stop taking out our defence ... we could possibly stop being the laughing stock of the universe.

Re: There's always an excuse to increase prices, but...

Change in tariffs is only one issue. Sterling exchange rate is very much another. I think we can all do a pretty accurate forecast the direction of travel if there should be no-deal/bad-deal.

"Use a Chrome book to access a Windows share? Why not just run Windows and be done with it?"

One of the reasons we are now a Linux shop was it was a lot easier to get Kubuntu working with Windows Shares than the new fangled (at that time) Vista. Has anything changed?

Yep, lack of Samba support, is a major limiting hole on my Chromebook so this is great news. Could end up with ChromeOS eating into the thin Linux client market as well as Windows.

But the TL:DR on the road answer is probably 'boot time'. Who needs it?

Re: Reminds me...

Kapton Log: "Prepare to decouple Soyuz"

* Checks stock of WD-40 *

Re: Waiting for a response...

"And there's some more to add to the DNS block list. I need a full list so I can block all of them. Ad block software not needed, and it's not detectable since it's running on my own server."

I use pi-hole and it is sometimes detected - which isn't that difficult with a simple test. Most sensible sites realise that if I'm excluding ads then I'm hardly likely to click on one so there is no point in getting emotional about it.

As for the few others do they seriously expect me to turn it off and reconfigure my DHCP just to see their site? Dream on ...

Re: Evernote Lament

"Did you not use NixNote?"

Yes. Two issues. It wasn't in the repositories and it broke with library issues on upgrades. This on probably the most popular *nix distro.

The coder did catch-up eventually but you can't run a business relying on that. If Evernote had taken it in-house we may have stayed. Dunno where the problem was with Evernote or the author but the costs to Evernote should have been minimal in order to hold on to even 4% of their business,

One way for Evernote to counter the Outlook/Onenote juggernaut on Windows is to make Windows a choice not a lock-in.

Re: Similar Experience

I may be out a limb here but I find the (usually redundant) attendent service in Spain a lifesaver.

Having picked up some random hire vehicle, having deciphered the correct sequence of pedal shifting to get it started and not yet panicking how to get the windscreen wipers on the front or back to wipe feverously or occasionally - then driving into a filling station with no idea which side, yet how to open the petrol filler - one can relax. Just push a 50 euro note to the attendent. They may not have a doctorate in hydro-carbon chemistry but they sure know how to get a nozzle into any petrol tank known to humanity.

Job done. Who needs technology?

Re: A fairly basic question...

"Why do all these businesses store credit card details?"

These are very high numbers for people who elect to have their cards saved when making an online burchase from DSG. Looks more like DSG have logged every purchase.

Given I've bought stuff in-shop and online but not stored - have my details been leaked or not? I await some correspondence from DSG with interest.

Beware Unicorns!

"Definitely vapourware then"

Does anybody [including the RCL Directors] really believe that if you can't deliver a production ready - or something close enough to confuse Indiegogo until the 15th - you can even hope to have anything to deliver to the UK on that date?

If it was a chance - the production kit would be coming off the lines in China or wherever now - with testing of the first batch, shipment to UK, customs and local delivery taking more than that time. In similar circumstances we have had a man take one off the production line jump on a plane with it as his 'personal computer' and show it to a customer the next day. Naughty but when your business depends on it - no question.

Unicornware I'm afraid. Debarrment of the Directors to follow?

Sorry to be thick ...

Why is performance so very different then running a Linux crouton?

My Kubuntu crouton [not the lightest desktop] delivers decent performance on my 5 year old 2/16Gb Samsung Chromebook. No probs with drivers either. Only problem is the Linux apps that assume an Intel environment. And WINE ain't going to be any good on many [most?] Chromebooks running ARM-based processors.

But it would be good to have the security of non-Developer mode and, hopefully, a neater way of firing it up.

Re: The problem lies deeper

"Could you get away with telling a Firefox user to install Chrome to use your website? Possibly."

Well yes. My default and preferred browser is Vivaldi. But I have to Fire up Fox occasionally to complete transactions on a couple of websites.

Surprisingly the main two culprits are the internet-savvy Nominet & Zen.

Re: Paper tape anyone?

"They referred to a paper where Turing works out thta gin is in fact the best medium for delay lines"

I think you are referring to his expense claim ...

Re: Glossing a commercial turd

I'm just setting out to join tonight's Portsmouth to St Malo ferry. Takes around 12 hours. Four up in a windowless cabin for most of that time along with several hundred doing the same thing. We choose to do it. There is a market and that mock-up looks like luxury in comparison.

Go for it!

Re: Given the time it's take to get the warrant...

... as a diversion from the drive dump.

I'm guessing the only way the ICO can pin this one is to go through CA's backup policy and see how reality matches up to what should be. And whether small discrepencies can underpin a court case [most likely not].

If CA has the backing of GCHQ's best spooky hackers - no chance. One part of the corporate state defeating another. But perhaps they are more honest and respectful of individual liberty than we cynics assume.

It's sit back and wait for a result time. But what will it be?

"Banning 5 million legal firearms is almost impossible."

There were millions of guns running loose around Europe after WW2 - many brought back as momentos from the war. My dad had one (or was it two). But they were squeezed out of the system quite quickly. Strangely communism didn't fill the void. Even more weirdly communist countries decided to eventually become non-communist - and succeeded without the use of arms.

Strict gun control can never completely stop bad people doing bad things. But it can reduce it from a major hazard to something very unusual - and something you don't need to prepare kids for. Here the Dunblane school shooting still resonates. The rules were tightened even more. Dunblane was 1996. That's 22 years ago. We may have a smaller population but not that smaller! The stats do point very strongly that reducing guns reduces risk. Its not rocket science.

Surely its worth a try? Or are the US population voting to remain prisoners of the NRA histrionics? On cold statistics a more threatening domestic terror organisation than those Potus gets excited about.

If rolling eyes could be heard across the pond - you'd be deafened.

Re: Schrödinger's Embassy

Its not the Trump administration Julian has to worry about - it's Robert Meuller. Which would be a worry for Trump if Jules is willing to do a deal ...

And will Fastly get their money back?

Re: Sympathy

To follow your arguement - if imprisonment in the United States (or elsewhere) were to create a significant or probable risk of death [whether through suicide or physical cause] then extradition should be denied whatever the charge? That seems not unreasonable.

I do not have your experience so can you explain to me why the risks would be significantly higher than being committed to, say Liverpool Goal? TIA for your insights.

I have no question on the forum bar. The alleged offence was committed by a UK national on UK soil so clearly UK jurisdiction should take precedence. However, given that he has not been prosecuted here then in these globally connected times - the US surely has a call on Mr Love because of the alleged damage directed to and incurred on their soil but only if he hasn't had a fair trial here. No double jeapordy (or quadruple in this case). Only if their law in question is incompatible with the UK view of justice/civil rights should we deny it on that test. Is it?

Re: "banks telling their customers what they can and cannot buy?

I'm guessing this is a problem in the Mastercard/Visa community that they cannot handle and hence some banks are dumping it on their customers.

I've had money back from CC payments traders that have gone bust. That's part of the comfortable guarantee you get on many payments that could go wrong and why many of us choose to use a CC rather than a Debit card without protection.

That leaves the CC company exposed when they are guaranteeing an unstable and wobbly set of cryptocurrency exchanges who are taking money for something that doesn't exist and whose belief it does exist and have value could disappear overnight. Its not like Ladbrokes or BetFred who are always the winners in the betting world because their 'book' is all too real. So ideally it should have been Mastercard/Visa refusing to deal with exchanges - in which case the customer is not offered the opportunity to buy rather than deny.

But I guess the exchanges will always find some CC company willing to give them an account. After all they will make money unless the bubble bursts. And if only 1% believe it won't - its enough.

Somehow I'm not uncomfortable with Lloyd's decision. Nor do I think their shareholders. Or anyone seeking to protect the taxpayer - as we are there not to profit but to pay up when the financial world drops a bollock.

Re: Flash in the pan

We retired our last Flash dependent legacy application this week. Our (very) small contribution to making windows a little less unsafe.

More importantly being used to justify an extra beer all round.

Re: How? Why!!!

"If you outsource, you get what [their better paid lawyers decided] you asked for and pay for."

FTFY. And of course if the penalties are less than the cost of doing the job, why do it? If they really screw up then Chris Grayling may be their answer ... just sayin'

A GPS free day?

If I could lower the level of this conversation - I'm a cyclist. These days ride leaders are invariably led by a GPS enabled Garmin. Brilliant until something happens, we are delayed, the battery goes flat, it falls out of its holder or (whisper) the code crashes.

I'm the the one with an OS in my back pocket so disaster is adverted. OK for now but an increasing number of leaders can't properly read a map. Because they never had to. This unknowing dependence on a fragile radio signal goes right up the life endangering scale.

Plan all you want. But imho the only way to safeguard the planet is for the US/Russia/EU to turn their systems off for a day so to concentrate minds so we should know the backup will really work. Signalled well in advance 'cos I'm not taking a flight that day ...

Re: A company that will never learn

"There seems to be a conveyer belt of ‘senior management’ types that come along to put there stamp on the business and give some jobs to the boys along the way."

Absolutely! Of the six executive Directors only one is a woman (Company Secretary and I doubt she is on £440k/year). Can't even close their gender gap yet this socially irresponsible company can police how the disadvantaged lead their lives. I guess if they are missing out on half the talent the result is hardly a surprise.

They need a big PIP up the backside.

Re: Blockchain will fix everything

"Surely everything could be fixed if they just used a blockchain"

Great idea. Drop a bomb here and it replicates everywhere ... frankly right now a standoff between a F35 and a Tiger Moth (so STOL its almost VTOL) might have an embarrasing result. For the heavy stuff there's always a Swordfish or two

Just don't let on to the Ruskies where Duxford is ... or we are doomed, I say, doomed.

Re: Need help, NASA?

"Plus a Hayes modem and comms software."

Aha - I do have a couple of cable extenders but I'm not sure they will reach that far ...