* Posts by Arctic fox

2770 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Nov 2009

Uber sued by ex-Lyft driver tormented by app maker's 'Hell' spyware

Arctic fox
Headmaster

There is something about this company that reminds me of something.

Something that could and should be prosecuted under the RICO act.

Super Cali goes ballistic, Uber drivers are stocious (allegedly!)

Arctic fox
Happy

Re: "I reckon it could do with dropping the "are"............

.................. to make the subheading scan properly..."

It would indeed make it scan better but what about the grammar? What am I saying? Since when did Reggie's subbies bother about grammar?

Arctic fox

Just when you think that it cannot get any worse at Uber........

..........we read something like this. 2Nick3 in his response to one poster's concerns about false allegations from a disgruntled customer where he writes "I would drive right to the nearest police station and ask to be sobriety tested" is of course entirely correct. The police will cooperate because they also want to be certain that the driver is sober.

On a separate issue the subbing was highly entertaining:

"Super Cali goes ballistic, Uber drivers are stocious.....

This app maker's policies are something quite atrocious"

Thumbs up for the Mary Poppins reference - that brings back childhood memories!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pu1adxqUAg

An echo chamber full of fake news? Blame Google and Facebook, says Murdoch chief

Arctic fox
Flame

@Timmy B Re: Hillarious

Entirely agree. In the "prehistoric days" before Google and FarceBook it was the case that, in the UK at least, the Dirty Digger and News International in the form of the late and unlamented "News of the Screws" and the still extant "Soar away Sun" had a near monopoly on fake news. They specialised in it in fact as anyone who followed what happened at the News of the World is entirely familiar with. That we are in a whole new paradigm where the likes of FarceBook, Shitter and Slurps R' Us (no not Win 10 in this case although that is bad enough, we are talking master class slurping here and that is Google) enable broadcasting of this shit in nanoseconds over the entire face the planet does not change the fact that anyone from NI should keep their mouth tightly shut.

Head of US military kit-testing slams F-35, says it's scarcely fit to fly

Arctic fox
WTF?

I had to read this bit twice to get my head round it.

"Opening the door to fire the cannon pulls the aircraft off-target"

Aren't aircraft designers supposed to know about things like drag coefficients? I mean that the way the landing flaps work (or rather how they work) might suggest that suddenly opening the door to the gun bay might have an effect on the aircraft's behaviour in flight?

Oracle doing due diligence on Accenture. Yep, you read that right

Arctic fox
Flame

One of the few occasions when you will hear one of these coporate big dicks quoting Marx...

.......is when they refer to his comment about "the creative destruction of capitalism." Unfortunately the reality is that they only get the "destruction" bit. They destroy jobs, trade and shareholder value and because of their stranglehold over the current version of capitalism they get handsomely rewarded for their destructive ego waving. It should be no surprise to anyone that sociopaths frequently choose careers in managment. In another existence Norman Bates would have been the CEO of a large Corporation rather than running a small motel.

Why do GUIs jump around like a demented terrier while starting up? Am I on my own?

Arctic fox
Joke

@Mark 85 Re: "In WWII, they called it "combat fatigue"."

It is possible that what they called it in WWI is even more appropriate in this context. "Shell shock"

UK.gov gears up for IR35 private sector crackdown – say industry folk

Arctic fox
Trollface

Re: Next few weeks....

Let me see now. The thread has absolutely nothing to do with M*******t at all in any way shape or form and yet you post a anti-Redmond hateboi howl. Your name is -redacted- and I claim my five pounds.

UK Home Office warns tech staff not to tweet negative Donald Trump posts

Arctic fox
Trollface

That was absolutely amazing!

"Good advice for HO staffers and everyone else too. Nobody gives a rat's ass about your whining. You're wasting your time and asking for trouble."

One of the best send-ups of a Trump tweet that I have seen so far. What, you meant it? Oh dear.

Force employees to take DNA tests for bosses? We've got a new law to make that happen, beam House Republicans

Arctic fox
WTF?

Sometimes a quote can really make you cross-eyed.

A spokesperson for the modern Republican party said:

"It is another sad reminder of just how extreme the Democrat party and their liberal allies are becoming."

It is not often that I make use of a biblical quotation but on this occasion the following from the King James version is spot on:

"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

Microsoft wants you to plan a new generation of legacy systems

Arctic fox
Windows

@Duncan Macdonald Re: Factory automation

Well done. A thoughtful and intelligent comment instead of the all too usual anti-Redmond hateboi auto-howling. It is precisely in that area where that type of "insurance" is in fact worthwhile. In one of our laboratories we had (it has now after many many years loyal service gone to the great scrapyard in the sky) a high pressure liquid chromatography rig that would have cost an arm and a leg to replace, was still doing sterling service and did not need networking. As a result it ran with Win2k Pro (I kid you not) for its entire service. However, our new one needs networking and the extra 6 years support would be highly worthwhile. There is an significant area (as you point out) where keeping the OS going for an extra 6 years would in fact be a significant advantage. Although of course in other circumstances that would not be the case.

Li-ion king Goodenough creates battery he says really is... good enough

Arctic fox

"It does catch fire in contact with water."

Indeed it does. However, as is implicit in your opening comment, you would have to subject the battery container to significant damage under wet conditions before you had a serious problem. Lithium based batteries of the current generation are inherently significantly more vulnerable. Furthermore sodium is available in gigantic amounts from seawater and would be much much cheaper than lithium. The degree of environmental damage that lithium extraction causes (blowing up mountainsides and so on) would also be drastically reduced. I sincerely hope that this actually turns out to be something that comes to market.

Lap(top) of luxury: Porsche Design revs up 2-in-1 Windows 10 slab

Arctic fox
Windows

The hinge is in fact a point of interest contra the Surface Book for a very pratical reason.

If you wish to use a Surface Book in the «tent» position you have to first release the tablet section from the hinge, turn the tablet part round and reattach it to the keyboard dock. When you then wish to close the device again you have to detach it from the keyboard………… yes, I am sure you have got the picture. If you take a look at this link to “The Verge” you will see a picture series that appears to clearly show that this effort from Porsche Design can simply be flipped into the required position – a far more sensible arrangement IMHO.

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/2/27/14754142/porsche-design-book-one-release-mwc-2017

How to nuke websites you don't like: Slam Google with millions of bogus DMCA takedowns

Arctic fox

Re: Not accidental

Indeed. However it is rather "special" that we have lawyers launching what are in practice analogues of DDoS attacks.

In colossal shock, Uber alleged to be wretched hive of sexism, craven managerial ass-covering

Arctic fox

@ Haefen "For them a company does not have to be profitable to be profitable to them."

A very good point Haefen. When companies finally realise that these "psycho-managers" actually damage them we may (possibly) see some changes. If of course, the senior managers of the company are not of the same ilk.

Arctic fox
Headmaster

Re: 2017 and male managers still consider this "appropriate" behavior with women staff?

I entirely agree. On a more general point one would have thought that any modern company would make it clear to its managers that good personal behaviour towards their subordinates is regarded as a key part of their abilities as a manager. That personally objectionable behaviour (regardless of its specific nature) towards members of staff who are junior to them will be regarded as a potential sacking offence regardless of how good they may or may not be at other aspects of their work. It is sadly a fact that the concept "human resources" is something that is honoured in the breach rather than the observance in all too many companies.

Crack in black: Matte iPhones losing paint at alarming rate, gripe fans

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Dave 126 You get an upvote for that.

The image of some iFanboi in the bath scrubbing desperately at his corns with his iShiny almost reduced me to tears of laughter. See icon.

Samsung battery factory bursts into flame in touching Note 7 tribute

Arctic fox
Trollface

Ladeez and Geeentlemen put your hands together for the Galaxy Note 7.

The gift that keeps on giving!

Vivaldi and me: Just browsing? Nah, I'm sold

Arctic fox
Windows

Re: "Just doesn't happen."

Has not happened here at Arctic Fox Towers either. Both La Señora and I run Surface Pro 3s running Win 10 Pro and use Firefox as our default browser. The behaviour that Andrew describes in the context of Vivaldi simply does not happen here. What the issue is I do not know the implication that this is some kind deliberate try-on against third party browsers does not accord with our experience.

2016: Snapchat loses $515m... 2017: Snapchat rips veil off $3bn IPO

Arctic fox

@Kevin McMurtrie Re: " but competitors will pop up everywhere to take a cut."

It may in fact already be happening. Instagram "stories" appears to be beginning to take a significant bite out of Snapchat's lunch if what some of the "celebs" are saying about the change in how many are following them on which app is to be believed.

This bot shorts stocks when Trump tweets (don't fret, the profit is used for good)

Arctic fox
Joke

@Colin Millar RE: "Paddy Power impeachment odds currently 11/4 first term"

Given that for him to realistically avoid impeachent in his first term he would have to keep his mouth shut for the next four years I would offer 4/11 odds on!

God save the Queen... from Donald Trump. So say 1 million Britons

Arctic fox

@sikejsudjek The interesting thing is that the list of countries that the trumpkin finds.....

.............unacceptable does not include those muslim countries where his companies do business. Interesting form of selectivity that. If they are lining his pocket then they are not dangerous.

Happy Friday: Busted Barracuda update borks corporate firewalls

Arctic fox

@ cd / && rm -rf * Re: "Duh."

Indeed. Apart from anything else pushing out such updates on a Friday risks costing their customer companies even more (due to increased personal costs, weekend working (overtime payments of time off in lieu) and so forth) than the disruption would have cost them anyway. Sort of adding injury to insult (so to speak).

Kylie withdraws from Kylie trademark fight, leaving Kylie to profit from… existing?

Arctic fox
WTF?

Sometimes I am left with a surreal feeling that I am not quite in the same universe as other people.

"suffer irreparable injury to their reputation and goodwill"

The Kardashians, pardon? How did they manage to write/say that whilst maintaining a straight face?

Trump signs 'no privacy for non-Americans' order – what does that mean for rest of us?

Arctic fox
Unhappy

It has been very interesting reading this thread. There is one point I feel should be made:

He did not expect to win. He and his entire team look as if they are beginning to realise that they have a tiger by the tail and are terrified of letting go. They are ratcheting up the ante in a desperate attempt to keep away from the teeth at the other end. I do not give this administration more than two years at the outside. With regard to what may happen in those two years, God help us all.

Forget Tony Stark's Iron Man – exosuits of the future will be spandex

Arctic fox
Headmaster

"Social acceptability may not matter in conflict scenarios"

True. However, one might under certain circumstances in conflict scenarios wish to be able to conceal such enhancements.

I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the API key

Arctic fox
Happy

@Doctor Syntax and rhydian Re: "I've got a brand new combine harvester............

.......................and I'll give you the API key"

It would appear that I read the reference as referring to the original song rather than the humorous cover provided by The Wurzels - Combine Harvester (Brand New Key). Quite clearly my bad.

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

"I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the API key"

Very witty reference. Melanie Safka's "Brand New Key". The obligatory You-Tube link? Naturally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5LzOlNZPCc

Facebook bans Russia's RT ahead of Trump's Inauguration Day (then changes its mind)

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Wonko The Sane "To do that I'd have to have started using it. Upvoted anyway"

You and me both. :)

Furthermore, from the article:

"Whether or not the ban was over a copyright kerfuffle, the Kafkaesque stone-walling is not a great look for a social network that's used by more than a billion people and wields unprecedented power over the media and populations. Facebook declined to comment when poked by El Reg last night.®"

Is it not hilarious that when it comes to stonewalling legitimate questions FarceBook manages to out-Kremlin the Kremlin? Indeed in a contest to treat your "voters/customers" with studied contempt I am not sure who would win, Vladimir Putin or Mark Zuckerberg.

Why Theresa May’s hard Brexit might be softer than you think

Arctic fox
Mushroom

Re: Plausible

She cannot be bothered to be remotely honest: "Her logic, she said, was that UK had voted overwhelmingly to end open borders". Voted overwhelmingly? What was the difference between the "leavers" and "remainers" - a few percentage points? That does of course not in any way change the fact that the vote was for departure. However, when the Prime Minister herself is willing to characterise the balance of the vote in such a transcendentally dishonest fashion one has to despair of any degree of honesty from our politicians. It was a close vote (that of course does not change the result), however pretending that she in practice has a large majority of the country on her side is one big steaming fat porky.

SpaceX makes successful rocket launch

Arctic fox
Joke

@Alister RE:"IT WAS NOT A FACEBOOK SATELLITE!"

Pity.*

No, I am not hostile to Space X. See icon.

Google nukes ad-blocker AdNauseam, sweeps remains out of Chrome Web Store

Arctic fox
Windows

@Terry 6 Re: ".........that we get if Microsoft is even so much as mentioned."

Indeed. It is amazing how much howling and hosing you get on any thread even remotely connected with Win 10 whereas it is very much quieter both in terms of the nature of the postings and the number of them that we see on any thread which involves Google's privacy issues. I am not in any way implicitly or explicitly making excuses for the serious privacy issues with Win 10 but when it comes to data "slurping" Google could give master classes to world plus wife plus dog and Microsoft.

Trio charged with $4m insider trading by hacking merger lawyers

Arctic fox
Unhappy

I am depressed. For one wonderful moment I misread the headline as:

"Up to seven New York law firms targeted by Manhattan prosecutors".

What a bummer when I realised it was just my little dream. See icon.

Crim charges slapped on copyright trolls who filmed porn, torrented it then sued downloaders

Arctic fox
Happy

The reactions from the tech community, proffesional and amateurs alike can be summed up as:

"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive."*

The threads connected to articles about this in the US itself make very entertaining reading.

eg. This from Arstechnica:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/12/breaking-prenda-law-copyright-trolls-steele-and-hansmeier-arrested/

*Wordsworth.

EU dings Sony, Panasonic over rechargeable battery cartel

Arctic fox
Flame

How often is Samsung going to be allowed to grass its way out of bother?

This is the third time that I remember that they have got away with monopolistic practices simply by squealing. If memory serves the previous occasions were in the European TV market. It is one thing to reduce their punishment in return for cooperation and quite another to allow them to get away scot free every time.

Germany warns Moscow will splash cash on pre-election propaganda and misinformation spree

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Archtech ".....that strategy has very little in common with John Maynard Keynes."

Indeed. It is refreshing to see somebody post something about Maynard Keynes that shows they actually know what they are talking about. A very informative and concise summary of what he was in fact recommending. See icon.

Arctic fox
WTF?

Re: "their current far-left quasi-dictator"

Just how right-wing are you Big John if you regard Merkel in such terms? You regard Attilla and Ghengis as your homebois perhaps?

Qualcomm, Microsoft plot ARM Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs, tablets, phones

Arctic fox

Well Bob, given your predeliction for caps lock.................

........."Bombastic" was probably a good choice.

Arctic fox
Windows

Re: "How do you license something.............."

AFAIK Microsoft do not charge a license fee for devices with screens under seven inches. As for performance we will have to see what the combination of the new cpus produced by Qualcomm and the emulation layer deliver in practice. It may indeed be a complete bust but we do not know that yet. I said that I thought that it was interesting - not that I was automatically sold on the idea. We will just have to wait and see what comes out in the wash.

Arctic fox
Windows

Re: Very interesting but not entirely surprising.

It appears that MS are fully recompiling Win 10. At least according to Mary Jo Foley:

“The coming version of Windows 10 for Qualcomm is not Windows RT. It is a version of Microsoft's full Windows 10 desktop that's compiled natively to run on the Qualcomm CPU. It can run Universal Windows Platform apps. But it also will allow Win32 apps to run via emulation. According to Microsoft, existing peripherals and enterprise features that are currently supported in Windows 10 for Intel PCs will work on Windows 10 on Quolcomm devices.”

How well such an emulation layer will work remains of course to be seen. It is also interesting that "enterprise features" are mentioned in this quote. One of the things that killed Windows RT stone dead was of course the lack of such enterprise features active directory, setting group policy, remote desktop support and so on and so forth.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-to-pc-makers-lets-make-some-windows-10-arm-based-pcs/

Arctic fox
Windows

Very interesting but not entirely surprising.

Given Intel's apparent abandonment of x86 cpu development for mobile devices (whether phones or smaller form factor tablets) it was clear that the only way forward for MS in this area was ARM-based. That being the case the only “big thing” they could offer the punters was something that in practice* was a full port of their desktop OS such that relatively small form factor devices could genuinely function as a full pc when docked (as apposed to the very limited experience that Continuum currently provides).

*Please note that I say in practice rather than necessarily in the literal technical sense of a complete recompiling of Win 10 to run on ARM.

UCam247 tells El Reg most of its cams aren't vulnerable to GET vuln

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@John Robson Re "I like that expansion of IoT"

I wish that I could claim that it was intentional. I simply wrote my comment without noticing that felicitous acronym. Must have been a stream of (un)consciousness thing. :) Nice comment BTW - see icon.

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Mephistro Re: Good...

Indeed. I was open mouthed when I read this letter. Polite, informative and as far as one can see, showing a proactive and constructive approach to such challenges. Clearly he has not read Ignore, Obfuscate, Threaten and Litigate 101!

ExoMars probe snaps photos of your next dystopian home world when Earth goes to crap

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

"Volcanoes to the left of me, chasms to the right, here I am –

- sniffing the atmosphere for you"

Very nice Stealers Wheel reference in the title of the photo at the top. As a service to those who were not young adults in 1972 here is the obligatory youtube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8StG4fFWHqg

Hackers crack Liechtenstein banks, demand ransoms

Arctic fox
Mushroom

Why is it that I am having difficulty working up any indignation on this occasion?

Must have something to do with the nature of the target. I have some difficulty sympathising with banks whose collective name should be TaxEvasions R'Us.

NASA trying to rein in next-generation super-heavy lifter costs

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

Re:"Cleaner air, a diversified energy production portfolio more efficient electronics etc..."

I entirely agree. Although I have my reservations about the scale of the human contribution to global warming claimed by some of the most ardent warmers I accept entirely that the measures that we need to take if it is true are a good thing in themselves for several other reasons. I.e. Let's do it anyway without bothering about the theology of either side of the arguement.

Qualcomm taps Samsung to make next-gen 10nm Snapdragon

Arctic fox
Flame

"will give it a 27 per cent performance increase or cut power consumption by 40 per cent"

Anyone betting against the phone manufacturers expending very little of that on improved battery life?

Facebook Fake News won it for Trump? That's a Zombie theory

Arctic fox

Re: Just say No.

I agree and I do. Which is why I routinely refer to "FuckBook", "Shitter" and "SlapTwat" whenever I post on the issue of social media.

Russian banks floored by withering DDoS attacks

Arctic fox

Doctor Syntax Re: "In fact regulation as evils is no argument at all."

Indeed Doctor Syntax, I entirely agree. Adam Smith the Grandfather of modern capitalism (born 1723) and a keen supporter of free markets understood that ensuring they function as intended required regulation. Possibly his most famous quote is the following:

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices”.

The fact of the matter is, as you point out, we regulate markets for a number of reasons to ensure that they are efficient and constructive rather than inefficient and destructive. This is a classic example of where the lack of regulation is having very unfortunate and destructive effects which impact everyone on our little rock. Whatever the barking wing of the neo-liberal school of economics may believe regulation is the saviour of a constructive and efficient market economy. Without it the system would eat itself.

Arctic fox

@Palpy "Until regulation requires it. Which makes the manufacturers bark with dismay, "

I take your point and I have to say that given the threat level that insecure IoT devices represent then it is precisely that we are going to have to do. Make such devices illegal unless they comply with basic security procedures. If this is what is necessary then as far as "evil socialist totalitarianism" is concerned in this context, I say "bring it on"! I do not give a shit what the short term self interest of these companies is, what I do care about is that we may end up in a situation where one of the most important technical achievements that humanity has ever created might be destroyed by cowboy companies who do not care about anything other than the bottom line.