* Posts by roblightbody

94 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Dec 2011

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Fujitsu: Dumping older workers will wipe out quarter of forecast profit

roblightbody

I find that when using the latest "exciting" cutting edge cloud technology, full of buzzwords and sexy branding, under the skin, its exactly the same in principle as what I've spent 25 years learning... all the lessons learned still apply.

Google sours on legacy G Suite freeloaders, demands fee or flee

roblightbody

Re: Migration of Apps and Movies

In exactly the same boat here.

I thought I was a UK user until I went to try to upgrade this afternoon, when I discovered at some point in the past they've defaulted me to USA, and you can *never* change it again. So I'm screwed. You should check yours, you might discover upgrading isn't possible, like i've just done.

roblightbody

I also signed up for this (and helped three other people to do the same) when it was called Google Apps for Domains.

Today I tried to upgrade my main one to the business starter and I couldn't. The billing has defaulted to the USA at some point in the past, and there is no way to change it - ever. I have no way of paying...

Its a huge amount of hassle and forcing lots of families and individuals into a business account that they don't want.

Zuckerberg wants to create a make-believe world in which you can hide from all the damage Facebook has done

roblightbody

Bond Baddie

For years I've thought Zuck was a real life Bond Baddie, and he really is looking like that. Closed off from the real world, unimaginable wealth, and simply insane ideas. Meanwhile his original product causes truly horrific things to happen all over the world. Its all like something from the movies.

Facebook rendered spineless by buggy audit code that missed catastrophic network config error

roblightbody

Wishing it went down permanently

I can't have been the only one wishing it never came back up. I don't remember thinking that about any other big outage of any system before.

The world would be a better place without Facebook.

Google emits Chrome 94 with 'Idle Detection' API to detect user inactivity amid opposition

roblightbody

Firefox and Duck Duck Go

The coming of Wi-Fi 6 does not mean it's time to ditch your cabled LAN. Here's why

roblightbody

Re: This months of work from home showed too....

Couldn't agree more, especially with corporate laptops which might have outdated wifi drivers/firmware!

Teradata customers express terror as field-based hardware support outsourced to IBM on both sides of the pond

roblightbody

Exactly. They think they're forcing their on-prem customers onto cloud, but they're actually forcing them to go elsewhere.

Internet Explorer downgraded to 'Walking Dead' status as Microsoft sets date for demise

roblightbody

Why don't Microsoft just restrict IE to intranet-only sites. This would help with all the old corporate systems that still need it, but aren't actually a security risk because they're just internal.

That's it. It's over. It's really over. From today, Adobe Flash Player no longer works. We're free. We can just leave

roblightbody

IBM Enterprise software from just a couple of years ago still uses Flash

At my workplace we use IBM Software that uses Flash to run some of the web consoles.

We were aware of this, but didn't know there was a hard-stop like this.

I don't give a damn about the old flash games that I used to enjoy in the 90s, but there's lots of boring corporate software that will have been knocked out like this, this morning.

Ofcom waves DAB radio licences under local broadcasters' noses as FM switchoff debate smoulders again

roblightbody

Re: "Only half the nation prefers digital radio to analogue, though"

I retro-fitted an Alpine DAB unit to my 2012 VW Golf, that makes use of the built-in amplified FM/DAB aerial in the rear spoiler. The reception is outstanding across most of the West of Scotland where I live, no problems at all. However the low bitrate stations let it down, and heading too far out to the countryside causes it to go altogether.

roblightbody

FM Radio with a strong signal is FAR better quality than any of the low-bitrate DAB stations that have been squeezed into the UK.

Also, across swathes of less populated areas of the UK, FM Radio is the only one that works - and on occasion you still need to go to AM!

It's good to talk: Union says IBM failed to consult system support techies as Scottish Power contract nears end

roblightbody

Outsourcing always sounds like it makes perfect sense - in theory. In practice, on the ground, I've never seen it do anything except add complexity, delays, costs, frustrations - ultimately just slowing everything down.

Forget Brexit, ignore Trump, write off today: BT's gonna make us all 'realise the potential of tomorrow'

roblightbody

Re: Not sure they are really engineers....

Yes the annoying British-only habit of undermining an entire professional career path by calling a lightly trained tech an Engineer...

Buying a Chromebook? Don't forget to check that best-before date

roblightbody

Re: That's Chromebook right out of my buying list then

Its only British Gas that tell people they can't get 10 year old parts for the boiler (in order to sell a new one) - if you go elsewhere, you'll find parts are available just fine.

10 PRINT Memorial in New Hampshire marks the birthplace of BASIC

roblightbody

Re: WOW...

Same here - it really hit me when i saw it - i must have spent a lot of time with it and my 48K Spectrum+ (which I also still have). Basic led me directly into a career in IT, which started off by using early versions of Visual Basic.

It's 2019 and a WhatsApp call can hack a phone: Zero-day exploit infects mobes with spyware

roblightbody

Trapped

I feel trapped by the Facebook world, and its not a good feeling. I can't be the only one.

I don't have the facebook app on my phone - never have - but I've found that I can't avoid using WhatsApp - and it needs to be on a phone to function - as too many other people rely on it - that's just a fact.

Also for Facebook, its many people's entire online world - they seem to not even venture to "old fashioned" websites any more - its just facebook. So its difficult to avoid too. I log into facebook occasionally (using Firefox's Facebook container plugin) and discover people have sent me messages on it and expected a reply days ago...

Remember Windows Media Center? Well, the SDK is now on GitHub to be poked at your leisure

roblightbody

I was a big fan, and it mostly worked very well.

With a cheap dual-tuner TV card in the PC, the Xbox as a media extender, it was a neat solution that was faster and had more functionality than most telly boxes today. I was sad when they dropped it.

The Reg takes a trip over the New Edge. Mmmm... New Coke with extra fizz

roblightbody

Old Edge had its good points!

On my 4gb laptop, Old Edge was far better than Chrome in terms of resource usage (to the point that I uninstalled Chrome and consumed even Google's services through Edge). I also think its sad that now there are only 2 major browser technologies. We all need to support Mozilla I feel.

Why millions of Brits' mobile phones were knackered on Thursday: An expired Ericsson software certificate

roblightbody

Re: More detail

As long as someone actually logs into the management console... or is looking at the notitication alert emails that its sending out.... thats if someone has actually configured it to send out emails....

Mac users burned after Nuance drops Dragon speech to text software

roblightbody

I'll never forgive Nuance for buying, then closing, the Swype keyboard. It was superb (they invented the flow method of text input on a phone), and despite trying various keyboards, nothing comes close.

Turn around, Capita: I'm trying but my pre-tax profits slipped 59%

roblightbody

Re: What's this?

Maybe a tiny violin for the very senior managers, but in general you're talking about people's jobs and mortgages, the huge number of people across the country that work for Capita, including people from companies who were swallowed up by them.

HostingUK drops offline after losing Farmer vs Fibre competition

roblightbody

I recently moved a website to Hosting UK. Their support was very good, prices very reasonable, and the server was really fast. I was reassured by the fact that they were backed by iomart, and am gobsmacked that this failure has been possible.

OnePlus 6: Perfect porridge? One has to make a smartphone that's juuuust right

roblightbody

Could have typed that myself! I want a rugged phone that doesn't need a case, and has great battery life, and i don't care if that means its not ultra-thin.

Time to ditch the Facebook login: If customers' data should be protected, why hand it over to Zuckerberg?

roblightbody

Appears to just be a link to The Register's facebook page to me.

roblightbody

It was obvious

As someone who grew up with the baby WWW of the 90s, using a login from just one company for multiple website always seemed like a horrible idea - and I never did it. The problem is people just don't care. They've handed this huge american company everything, and they don't care.

UK consumer help bloke Martin Lewis is suing Facebook over fake ads

roblightbody

Re: Mr Angry

He was good on the radio this morning, and mentioned other companies who had been similarly afflicted by fake adverts - they should join forces.

RIP, Swype: Thanks for all the sor--speec--speedy texting

roblightbody

I can type effortlessly with Swype, and find the Google keyboard a very poor imitation. I'm depressed at this news!

Typed on Swype.

OnePlus 5T is like the little sister you always feared was the favourite

roblightbody

Re: That Amazon link for the Nokia 8 nearly got me!

I bought my OP3 for £330 and absolutely love it. A new OP5T with postage is £470 minimum, the jump in price causes me to nut just dive in and order one, and instead to wait another year.

roblightbody

Re: Fingerprint sensor on the rear

Thats not correct. HOLDING a Hands free phone is illegal, but touching it is OK, if its in a bracket.

roblightbody

Re: Fingerprint sensor on the rear

That's actually not true. Its illegal to *hold* the phone. But when mounted in a suitable bracket, touching the screen of the phone is no different to touching the touch screen on a modern car and is allowable within reason. I checked with the police.

Give us a bloody PIN: MPs grill BBC bosses over subscriber access

roblightbody

No Brainer

I love the BBC.

Surely you could just get your iPlayer "Access Code" on your license fee paperwork, its a 1-time use, and you use it once to connect to your iPlayer account. No access code, no iPlayer.

And then yes, a subscription service for the massive and unique and very important BBC back catalogue - I'd pay quite a lot for their music back catalog alone.

- Rob

Google isn't saying Microsoft security sucks but Chrome for Windows has its own antivirus

roblightbody

Chrome is the new IE

In the 90s and early 00s, Microsoft was hammered for their browser providing extra functionality for their own services. But I don't see what Google's doing now as any different. Their browser is a portal to their services, and has lots of functionality built in to support G suite etc. If you use G suite with Firefox, for example, you get a different experience.

I try to restrict my Chrome use to my G suite usage. I am a huge fan of Firefox, and have become aware of how much better Edge is on a W10 laptop - resource usage is hugely less than for Chrome.

Official: Windows for Workstations returns in Fall Creators Update

roblightbody

Re: Does it still have 2D FLATSO, SPYWARE, ADWARE ???

Forced updates only apply to Home edition. I believe any device connected to the internet should forcibly update itself.

roblightbody

Re: What about auto-updates?

The Home versions of Windows 10 handle updates completely different to the Professional versions. The home versions force updates on users, which I believe is the correct approach (everyone I know who runs Windows but isn't an IT professional never lets their PCs update if given the choice).

The scenario you describe should not occur in a business.

Openreach pegs full fibre overhaul anywhere between £3bn and £6bn

roblightbody

I'm one of millions of people in an area served by Virgin Media cable, and no Openreach Fibre - not even fibre to the cabinet. They are not incentivised to connect these areas, so there's no competition, and Virgin can get away with poor service without losing customers. Really frustrating. My 100mb Virgin service is fast enough but I'd like a choice of provider.

Twitter will no longer snaffle data allowances on Virgin Mobile

roblightbody

This is a story about Net Neutrality

Why on earth does the article not mention this once?

Microsoft boasted it had rebuilt Skype 'from the ground up'. Instead, it should have buried it

roblightbody

Totally agree, use it daily and love it.

It's 2017 and Microsoft is still patching Windows XP+ – to plug holes exploited by trio of leaked NSA weapons

roblightbody

Re: What a sterling performance..

It tells you that its a sixteen year old OS that shouldn't have been getting used for anything for years now.

roblightbody

Re: Windows Update? Ha,Ha,Ha,....

Why didn't you upgrade to 8.0, then 7.1, then 10, then the 10 update... Windows 7 is really old now, I don't know why people persevere with it.

Ransomware scum have already unleashed kill-switch-free WannaCry‬pt‪ variant

roblightbody

Re: Experts all giving advice how how to stay secure

From https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/05/12/customer-guidance-for-wannacrypt-attacks/

"Customers running Windows 10 were not targeted by the attack today."

roblightbody

Re: Experts all giving advice how how to stay secure

Everyone is brave enough to suggest not running an old version of Windows without any updates.

In this case, anyone with a current OS with current updates, was completely safe.

roblightbody

Re: Experts all giving advice how how to stay secure

Windows 10 is unaffected.

Also there was a lot of criticism of Microsoft forcing updates on users with Windows 10 - will that criticism now end? Users need protected from themselves. We all know people who ignore all the updates their computer or device is asking to install.

Windows 10 S forces Bing, Edge on your kids. If you don't like it, get Win10 Pro – Microsoft

roblightbody

A Chromebook forces chrome and google search on you.

How is this different?

Microsoft's in-store Android looks desperate but can Google stop it?

roblightbody

Re: Android - bit of a toy OS, really.

I checked with the police because I was confused too.

The phone must be mounted on the dashboard, not in your hand - thats essential.

As long as its mounted, you can touch it - as long as it doesn't affect your driving. In that respect its no different to the distracting touch screens that now come in all new cars.

By the way - the Android Auto app is great - and yes I have i disabled the "OK Google" command.

Smartphones crashed, Samsung burned: Mobile in 2016

roblightbody

Not a single mention of OnePlus? The Oneplus 3 was the standout phone of the year for me. £309 (to start with) and with specs exceeding phones more than double that price. I love mine.

BA check-in system checks out: Staff flung back to cruel '90s world of paper

roblightbody

Outsourcing = problems

The only point when they discover how good and efficient their in-house IT team was, is a couple of years down the line when the problems start to mount up, and take ages to resolve...

Trainline.com dumps Oracle and Microsoft, gulps AWS Kool-Aid

roblightbody

Fascinating article. I think he's right, mostly. Insourcing IT with developers and people who intrinsically care what they're doing, with the flexibility of cloud hosting.

I wonder what he thinks about the fall in the pound affecting what he's paying AWS, though... wonder if he factored that into his budgets this year...

Windows 7's grip on the enterprise desktop is loosening

roblightbody

"So even if every PC sold this year runs Windows 10 – which won't happen, because lots will be Macs..."

You make that sound like a large percentage, or even most, will be Macs. Which is complete nonsense. Macs still make up only a small % of the number of PCs sold. Even if everybody wanted a Mac, most people can't afford one.

Microsoft's done a terrible job with its Windows 10 nagware

roblightbody

Microsoft says that Windows 10 is fundamentally more secure than Windows 7. Therefore, the entire OS is an important security update. I don't see the issue.

Windows 7 is nearly 7 years old, its very much time to move on.

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