* Posts by Hyphen

68 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Feb 2010

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BART barfs, racers crash, and other classic BSODs

Hyphen

That first one is the standard boot screen for those types of railway displays. Not so much a crash/BSOD as an "I'm ready" screen.

It's expecting data over serial, but a loose connection or another issue upstream is stopping it from receiving that data.

They are IP capable too, although this particular sign has it disabled. Once saw similar signs on the Vale of Glamorgan line in South Wales all proudly displaying their 10.0.0.0/16 addresses. No idea how they do backhaul though (GSM?).

Idiot flies drone alongside Flybe jet landing at Newquay Airport

Hyphen

I'm reading El Reg on Firefox Android with uBlock Origin running quite nicely, TYVM.

Sadly NoScript doesn't appear available for it yet.

Industry infighting means mobile users face long delays on UK trains

Hyphen

This is doubly twisted because National Rail has their own mobile phone spectrum for GSM-R.

Yes - but us peons can't use it. I see this complaint a lot - why can't we share that bandwidth? Well, aside from the fact it's only at a 2G standard, would you really want your train driver to face the problem that they can't contact the signaller in an emergency because all the capacity is taken up with people saying they're at a standstill? Or instagramming/tumblring pictures of the person the train just hit...

SPY FRY: Smart meters EXPLODE in Californian power surge

Hyphen

Re: Rubbish driving

That was so bad it deserved an upvote!

BOFH: The current value of our IT ASSets? Minus eleventy-seven...

Hyphen

Re: Sharon T. Pokeworthy...

My go-to number for signups is 0800 5190100 - the old number for ntl dialup :)

Yorkshire cops fail to grasp principle behind BT Fon Wi-Fi network

Hyphen

Eh?!

How on earth would said neighbour know the chap in question was piggybacking off a wifi connection (Fon or otherwise) and not using 3G? Unless said chap was going round telling people that he was using wifi, I don't see how they could have known.

Listen: WORST EVER customer service call – Comcast is 'very embarrassed'

Hyphen

Re: Three

This!

A few years ago my sister wanted to leave 3 for Giffgaff. She was very clear to the retentions bird that she wanted to leave, that she'd found a better deal elsewhere, and that she wanted her PAC. 3 kept offering her different packages at different pricing levels (which, to be fair, were fairly generous for 3 at the time) but none of them satisfied her requirements or price point like the £10 GG did (with its unlimited internet at the time).

At one point, she was put on hold whilst the retentions woman looked up Giffgaff, and when she came back, outright told my sister she was LYING about the deal she was moving to, and that she'd be paying £25/mo for what she claimed. She literally could not accept she had a customer who wanted to leave.

It eventually turned into my sister just repeating "No, thank you - I'd just like my PAC". 3 eventually gave up after just under 45 minutes...

Driver drama delays deep desert XP upgrade

Hyphen

Re: [W]Edimax wifi woes with Win7....[nod to Tweety Pie]

Windows will give you the same information without needing to boot into Linux.

Go to Control Panel --> Device Manager. Right-click your errant hardware and select Properties. On the Details Tab, select "Hardware IDs" from the drop-down list.

The bit you are looking for is, i.e. "VEN_10EC&DEV_8168" - Linux would list this hardware ID as "10EC:8168".

Googling can then begin!

Romance is dead: Part-time model slings $1.5bn SUEBALL at Match.com

Hyphen

Re: 1.5 mill isn't much

Did you read the article? Or even James 51's comment?

It's US$ 1.5 BILLION.

COFFEE AND DANISH HELL: National ID system cockup forces insecure Java on Danes

Hyphen
Facepalm

Re: Don’t They Read?

> Unless you can propose an alternate solution for a client-side, multi-platform OTP generator capable of being run on systems with low privileges.

Eh? A 15 second Google for NemID shows that the OTPs are actually generated in advance and sent out to you on paper. You use one each time you log into a government/banking service, then never use again. You run out, you request more.

http://multimedia.pol.dk/archive/00545/n_glekort_nemid_545025a.jpg

And anyway, there are a quite a number of ways of generating OTPs offline, without having to do anything on the client's PC. My bank has sent me an electronic OTP generator. When I log in, I use my username and password (which the bank knows) to log in, then I'm asked to generate the OTP. I enter a PIN into my Secure ID device (the bank has no record of this) to unlock, then it generates an OTP presumably based on the current time and the device's serial ID. The bank generates the same code its end and if they match, I'm in. I would presume the algorithm has been designed to reduce the chances of two secure IDs producing the same number at the same time.

Here's the $4.99 utility that might just have saved Windows 8

Hyphen
FAIL

Re: Yes...

"I have a couple of metro apps, such as thetrainline"

Pro tip... ditch TheTrainLine and book through any of the railway operators' websites. Save yourself the ridiculous booking and credit card fees TTL charges.

Personally I'd recommend eastcoast.co.uk or firstgreatwestern.co.uk - both use modern booking engines superior to what TTL offers. The layout makes more sense, and you can see with a swift mouseover what trains are available for a particular tticket, OR what tickets are available for a given train. Oh, and you can use any of these sites even if your journey doesn't involve travel with that particular operator!

The supercomputers LIED: UK rainfall is rising, but won't drown our phones

Hyphen

Re: I'm glad I don't live in Brighton

A surprising number of places around the UK like to claim that... I've heard Manchester, Sheffield and Swansea claim the same thing too.

(though looking at those maps, Swansea seems the most likely of those three to take that crown)

Gnome cofounder: Desktop Linux is a CHERNOBYL of FAIL

Hyphen
FAIL

Re: Huh.

@kain preacher

"Ye times has changed. It's now recommend to Take the SATs in your JR year in HS.

Ps if I had of waited to take the SATs at 18 , that would of meant waiting 6 months after I graduated from HS."

If you "had of" waited, maybe you'd understand English a bit better. It's highly "recommend" ;-)

Nexus 1 put in orbit to prove 'in space, no one can hear you scream'

Hyphen
FAIL

Mobile Twitter?

Why link to the mobile version of Twitter? It looks awful on a full size screen!

TVShack O’Dwyer strikes deal to avoid US extradition

Hyphen
Happy

Re: Touch down

Upvoted, as a Notts lad me-sen ;-)

Mint Linux gifts Unity haters with 'Nadia' ... plus her Mate

Hyphen
Thumb Down

Re: Have to agree

"I understand Nvidia has marginally better Linux support than ATI"

At work we recently had a kind-of-trial (but in frontline service) project which required the use of very small form factor boxes stuck to the back of monitors on the VESA mount. We went for Acer Aspire Revo machines. All running Linux (Ubuntu/Debian).

Really nice machines to work with, Nvidia Ion chipsets, did everything we wanted. 25 of them in service, everyone happy.

This month we were asked to extend the trial to 10 more locations. Could suddenly no longer purchase the Ion-based machines, and the only thing we could get our hands on had ATI cards onboard. OK, we expected some issues.

So they arrived, set them up, they didn't do the graphics processing out the box we required for the project. Downloaded, compiled, installed the official ATI driver. We were then left with a FUCKOFFMASSIVE box in the lower right corner of the screen saying we were using an unsupported driver. HOURS of Googling failed to resolve this. Same on both available choices of Linux flavour.

In the end we stole small PCs from elsewhere and hid them in the ceiling... :-(

Hyphen
Unhappy

Well that's a Hyphen FAIL!

"to have massively increased"

"topics covered do seem to have"

Hyphen
FAIL

El Reg seems to be going that way at the minute. That and never proofreading. The number of silly little mistakes (spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc) which have been popping up recently do seem to have massive increased. Then again, I'm not sure if it's just me but the number of articles and breadth of topics covered does seem to have increased of late - maybe I should just stop moaning!

Back to the point, I agree. I'm a Kubuntu user (since Unity fecked me off) but would have appreciated a screenshot without having to go and search for it myself. Even a link to an example would have done - I had a very brief browse of the MintBox (just for pictures) but still don't know what the UI looks like! I know it's only 30 seconds to look, but it's more effort!!

Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs

Hyphen

Re: the pronunciation of other acronyms

I demand to know where I buy a Joovc television to watch my Doovdé on. Maybe I should buy one from Hoomv.

Virgin Media vid misery blamed on unnamed peering network

Hyphen
WTF?

Why is this news?

I'm dealing with routing issues every other sodding week when staff complain they can't access such-and-such a site. This is a BT Infinity line BTW.

Why do these constant BT issues never make Reg news?

Judge: Your boss has no right to your emails held by a third party

Hyphen

Re: emails deleted.

In a lot of places (think NHS) it's actually mandated that employees KEEP all their emails, etc - this is usually in case someone puts in a FOI request or something later.

Scotland Yard arrests female computer hacking suspect

Hyphen
Happy

Re: Cracking suspect.

I want one.

Medical scan record that the NHS says will cost £2k to retrieve: Detail

Hyphen
Stop

Re: This is down to...

Michelle, this probably has stuff all to do with the NHS - when they make these CD images they just press "Export" in whichever manufacturer's PACS system they use (and there are enough) and you're at the mercy of whatever Philips/Agfa/Siemens/etc/etc decided to write.

That said, there is the odd trust who likes to build their own CD frontends - these usually come written in VB :-(

We receive patient discs from a very wide geographical area when people visit us for healthcare. I'll agree - the general standard is dire. It's a nightmare trying to actually get the images out of some of them.

Oh, and don't get me started on the trusts which don't encrypt their discs...!

Hyphen
FAIL

Re: Another reason (if one were needed)

PDF and TIFF? Can't say I'm a fan of that idea. That's again using proprietary stuff (are there any patents stuffed up the sleeve of PDF, a la GIF?) and, well, the whole thing is just fairly unmalleable. How best would you import into your new system from a PDF?

I don't understand what the NHS buys to make everything so incompatible. These days everything should be using the DICOM standard for storing, transmitting and sharing medical images. It's been around since 1985, so most people should have caught up by now!

DICOM, more usefully than TIFF (or PDF) stores the image but also stores several shitwads of metadata information about the picture, such as patient name/ID/age/etc, when the image was taken, what it was taken of (i.e. Right Knee), then lots of other useful information such as exposure time (in the case of X-Rays) or co-ordinates (in the case of MRI/CT scans). It also allows for annotations to be stored which can be superimposed on the other end if required.

Source: I implement and maintain PACS systems.

BT and Virgin sue over £10m state-funded Birmingham broadband

Hyphen
WTF?

Re: something is amiss here....

It's not so much a "dump" but it's part of contractual arrangements.

The overwhelming majority of private hospitals in the UK have no emergency facilities and are just acute centres performing routine operations. Whilst many will have something resembling an intensive care unit, these are only staffed when there are patients scheduled who would require it post-operatively.

In the interests of patient care a patient will be transferred to the local NHS hospital should something go wrong, because they have the facilities to deal with this. It's not often things do go wrong like this (as I say, this is mostly routine) so for the private sector to build, maintain and staff such facilities just wouldn't be economical.

I work in a private hospital and although we undertake work from many trusts in a fairly large area (to keep NHS waiting list times down), we have a contract with our local trust such that we can transfer a patient if necessary.

NURSES' natural DESIRES to be SATISFIED, by technology

Hyphen
Alert

Re: Handwriting

Assuming you don't also work for the same place, does your pharmacist wife know how many InfoSec rules she's breaking showing you that? ;-)

'It's not a post-PC world: Just a post Windows one, maybe'

Hyphen
WTF?

Re: eh?

I went to an Insight event in Manchester the other month where Microsoft had a stand.

I'd previously tried W8 on the PC and was horrified by it. All the usual stuff, where's the start menu, how do I shut down? Fucking hated it.

When I tried it on the Surface it kinda made sense. However, when I tried to put it into Desktop mode the guy watching stopped me.

My only conclusion is that it's just not ready for either platform. They're sacrificing both for the benefit of neither. I just can't understand the business model.

Also mate, if you're reading, cheers for Keith.

Major Freeview EPG revamp to go ahead after appeals rejected

Hyphen

Re: Sounds great...

MythTV.

At the end of the day this reshuffle of the EPG makes bugger all difference. Every channel retains its Network ID and EIT ID. Not retuning will ensure you keep your old channel numbers and it will break NOTHING.

Everything Everywhere's 4G: Why I'm sitting this one out

Hyphen
Trollface

Re: leics lags again

Three of the many reasons to not live in Leicester!

Health Dept teases suppliers with mega NHS systems cash windfall

Hyphen
WTF?

FFS... the DH are clearly bored now the theatrics of their near-bankruptcy of CSC are over. Time to send another company bust?

(actually, let's hope Crapita bids - I would harbour no negative feelings for them losing £fucktonnes)

China Mobile to roll-out 16GB MEGA-cloud platform

Hyphen
FAIL

To be fair...

"continually frustrating China Mobile by failing to build an iPhone designed specifically for its home-grown 3G standard TD-SCDMA"

To be fair, if you're paranoid enough to want to go out of your way to build your own standard so as to avoid a dependence on Western technology, don't expect any Western technologists to want to support it!

Microsoft denies Windows 8 app spying via SmartScreen

Hyphen
FAIL

Re: Offline install?

"You get a message telling you that your system is unable to verity the program with Microsoft"

Ah, so another message the user will blindly click yes to.

Kobeissi's point still stands - if this is stored on the client end then it wouldn't NEED to ask you to go online to verify, it'd be able to do it there and then. And if you're offline, the likelihood of you installing some software which wasn't yet on your cached list would probably be fairly low.

I'm surprised there wasn't (or I didn't hear about) such an uproar with MS IE SmartScreen. As I understand it, Firefox does the same thing, but caches a list of bad wobsites locally.

ICO has yet to begin probing cookie violators

Hyphen

Re: Do you still need to put up a warning banner..

There's some vagueness about this. If you don't use cookies at all, you don't need to care.

If you use cookies for "functionality" (such as remembering somebody is logged in), you don't necessarily need to worry (though continue to a bit IMHO), because logging in implies use of it.

If you use cookies for "tracking", you have to warn. Though you apparently don't have to provide an opt-out.

Hyphen
FAIL

Re: The cookie law

Or, what a bunch of websites I've seen are doing...

You click 'YES' and the site uses cookies and doesn't bother you again.

You click 'NO' and the site uses cookies to remember your preference. Kinda defeats the entire purpose, really.

Beck's open-source challenge to freetards: play it yourself!

Hyphen

Re: Genius, in a way.

Upvoted, solely because I hate the PRS bollocks we have to put up with.

We're forced to pay for a fucking PRS licence in our waiting rooms (this is a hospital; there's little leniency) just so we can put BBC News on for patients. However, because we ONLY pay for these areas, this makes it illegal for me to put my (paid for!) Spotify account on in our office of two. I'm paying royalties every fucking month, but this is somehow irrelevant?

Beck? No opinion.

BBC gives itself a gold in 700Gbit-a-second Olympic vid sprint

Hyphen

They did... it was 302. You would have had to re-scan for it, and it was only showing events sporadically (I'd them have rather kept it on constantly) but still.

'It is not something you are good at, so please think twice'

Hyphen
FAIL

Re: Last four CC digits as security question?

My bank emails me every month to inform me that my CC statement is ready to view. They prove themselves to be my bank by using the last 4 digits of my card number...

Admittedly there's no "click here to log in" links or anything, but it does now worry me a little that this information is being accepted by CS to allow control over an account. Especially as the aforementioned bank's servers are seemingly unable to use TLS when they send the emails out.

Freeview EPG revamp set for September

Hyphen

Re: BBC Alba

And S4C in Wales :)

Why one storage admin fears Justin Bieber

Hyphen

Re: Not an as

Maybe it wasn't an ad from El Reg's PoV (you probably didn't get paid) but I imagine the sysadmin would have done for shameless publicity like this!

Though I must say, I do feel sorry for the guy - at least there's nothing like this in my line of work... though I am expecting our Internet bandwidth to go to shit over the next two weeks!

BT broadband packs up again - second big outage in a fortnight

Hyphen

Re: 12 sites down

"Are Plusnet any good?"

I share a bus with half their CS workforce every morning (based in Sheffield); from observation they seem fairly clued up guys.

Not had reason to use them though.

Adobe feeling drained by new model, but hopes things will improve

Hyphen
FAIL

Re: Upgrade tradmil

Eh??

Umm... The discount argument aside, if I pay £500 for each version and I get EVERY version, that's £1500 per 3 years. (example figures, I don't need/use Adobe software)

If I skip three versions, that's £500 per 3 years.

How exactly is that NOT saving money?

Chick-lit naughty girl MP Mensch starts own web-jabber service

Hyphen

Re: Hmmm..

"I always thought two jags was one of the better politicians of the last government."

Agreed, he's a straight talking Northerner who likes his food, and I can relate to that!!

Oh, and I'm actually one of about 8 people in the UK who was a supporter of the M4 bus lane - see http://www.cbrd.co.uk/indepth/m4buslane/ for why it works.

<runs away>

Sysadmins: Chucked your Exchange servers up? Let's enable SSO

Hyphen
FAIL

Eh?

So by trying to save money, time and energy on maintaining a small Exchange server, you're now maintaining four AD boxes?

I appreciate the redundancy etc aspects, and I doubt they'd need as much maintenance as Exchange (though if you set things up right, an Exchange box for small business really doesn't need much time spent on it) but this to me seems the opposite of what cloud computing is supposed to achieve!

Greene King pubs to offer free beer Wi-Fi

Hyphen
WTF?

Greene King IPA?

Seriously?

I don't think much of Abbot in the first place but you PREFER that 3.4% watered down crap? It's horrible. It doesn't even taste much of beer...

Then again, I avoid Greene King at all costs anyway - poor beer, poor pubs.

Tripleton touts telephone for double-ohs

Hyphen
FAIL

M16?

What's M16?

FCC ponders: When is it OK to switch off networks?

Hyphen

Re: Crystal ball time

...although TETRA is based on the same GSM technology, the cops tend to operate their own base stations which wouldn't be shut down in an event like this.

It also uses majorly different frequencies, so wouldn't be affected by normal GSM/UMTS frequency jammers.

Voda to plug not-spots with mini-masts in boozers

Hyphen

Public Internet

When we worry about putting things on the Internet, we tend to use a VPN. Why can't these boxes just fire up their own VPN connection to Voda's servers and then communicate solely on internal addresses?

Customers won't be able to route traffic down that connection so Voda wouldn't need to put billing on the wider Internet. I doubt there are many pieces of consumer tech which would deny standard VPN tunnels.

Virgin Media broadband in two-day wobble

Hyphen
FAIL

Oh what I would give

Oh what I would give for a Virgin Media connection[1], even WITH these routing issues.

I'm currently seeing ~75% packet loss on my BT ADSL connection.

This is fairly usual when it rains. BT claim there's no such problem and that it must be CPE failure. According to India, there's apparently no such thing as a master socket and I must be keeping my Home Hub (I'm using a 2Wire Business Hub) in the rain for this fault to occur! I did try to argue that if I subjected the Home Hub to rain I'd probably see 100% packet loss, but they ignored me.

I need to move to a cabled house!

[1] I called Virgin and offered to reimburse them for the full cost of the co-ax installation. No cost to them, plus at least 2 years' business on XXL. They refused.

Ministers kill off failed £12.7bn NHS IT revamp

Hyphen
FAIL

FAIL!!

A great ROFL as I came in this morning...

The day after all this is announced, the Choose & Book portal fell over!!

http://postimage.org/image/ovt3dyn8/

Hyphen
Unhappy

Bugger :(

That is all.

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