* Posts by Champ

168 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Feb 2013

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Critical vulnerability in Mastodon is pounced upon by fast-acting admins

Champ

>...why I won't trust Mastodon, running on any number of servers run by who knows what kind of monkeys

What, like email, yeah?

40 years of Turbo Pascal, the coding dinosaur that revolutionized IDEs

Champ

Re: Pascal as a teaching language

Really? Wow! I started the Comp Sci course at Imperial in Oct 1981 too! Unfortunately I flunked the exams at the end of the first year, and at to figure out how to make my way in the world...

... which started with BASIC on a CP/M machine, and then morphed to Turbo Pascal on DOS quite quickly. And the Pascal (and associated skills) I'd learnt in that single year did come in useful

Late Qualcomm cofounder teleports $200M into SETI to bankroll hunt for alien life

Champ

Rich guy does good thing

Nice to read about an addition to the credit column of humanity's ledger

USENET, the OG social network, rises again like a text-only phoenix

Champ

Re: rec.motorcycles, AKA Reeky

Yep, UKRM is still moderately healthy, although a world a way from its 100-posts-a-day heyday.

There's a few of us old regulars still on there. Aren't there, Eddie?

Brave cuts ties with Bing to offer its own image and video search results

Champ

No mention of Duck Duck Go?

I've been using Duck Duck Go for a couple of years now. Doesn't track you. I like it

Florida man accused of hoarding America's secrets faces fresh charges

Champ

Absolutely peerless reporting from El Reg

Not one mention by name of the Florida man. This is how he should be reported from now on.

Personally, I'm just going to refer to him as "the frequent golfer" (another gem)

Boffins say their protective satellite paint job could harvest power from the Sun

Champ

Why so snide?

Para 10:

"This extends to self-reconfiguration in orbit, if the report can be believed,..."

The "if the report can be believed" seems a bit unnecessary, even for El Reg

This is the end, Windows 7 and 8 friends: Microsoft drops support this week

Champ

Sticking with Media Center

Under my telly is the PC I built 10 years ago, in a hifi style case, which records TV for me, has all my music, a library of 100s of films, etc

I'm probably one of the last hold outs still running media centre, but I like it and there's no obvious replacement that does everything I want, so I'll be sticking with it, and Windows 7, for a while yet

UK's Guardian newspaper breaks news of ransomware attack on itself

Champ

Snide, or am I missing something?

"tears in the quinoa". Really?

Why would a keyboard pack a GPU and run Unreal Engine? To show animations beneath the clear keys, natch

Champ

2 reactions

1 What a stupid and impractical idea

2 I really want one

Twitter begs some staff to come back, says they were laid off accidentally

Champ

Re: Modest proposal.

Mastodon

It's where all the Twitter refuseniks are heading. Me included

US Army drone crashes hours ahead of breaking flight duration record

Champ

Wait....what?

Record set in 1959...by 2 guys in a Cessna.... refuelling from *a moving truck* !?!?!?

Wtf?!?!

Glad someone posted a link to *that* story...

Get over it: Microsoft is a Linux and open source company these days

Champ

Just looked in...

...to check out how many dinosaur "of course Micro$oft is evil" posts, and wasn't disappointed

I worked them for a few years in the SatNad era, and they're just another big corporate. No evil to be seen

I'm way way more suspicious, and in some cases genuinely scared, of Amazon and Facebook nowadays.

Microsoft, Apple, Google accelerate push to eliminate passwords

Champ

Yes, I re-use my password - what of it

There are a gazillion shitty websites that I've had to create an account on over the last 20+ years. Of course I'm not going to use a different password for each [1]. On precisely none of these do I care if my details get hacked. Say the crims find I bought some questionable furniture from Ikea last year - so what? Even sites that persist credit card details still need the CVV to complete the txn.

For anyone with any sort of online life, the only options seem to be password re-use, or use a password manager [2]

[1] and, yes, I have tried password managers. Haven't found one that gives me a compelling use case yet

[2] see [1]

UK space firm Skyrora opens rocket testing site in Scotland

Champ

Bit far from the equator?

I had understood that it was best to launch from as close to the equator as possible. Has that changed?

Windows 11 Paint: Oh look – rounded corners. And it is prettier... but slightly worse

Champ

Re: Continuing the trend

Do you mind - your tinfoil hat is catching the light

Intel's €80bn European chip plant investment plan not bound for UK because Brexit

Champ

Re: Deal done

Can you list any of these "rafts of EU bureaucracy and Brussels red tape", please? Compared to the now well-understood red tape involved in shipping anything from the UK to the EU?

It's not unusual for large multi-nationals to seek subsidies to set up in a particular jurisdiction. If the UK were still in the EU, it might well have benefited from such an EU subsidy for Intel to build a fab in the UK

Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima's exclusion zone

Champ

Re: If Marvel taught us anything

> Yup, we'll have flying pigs before flying cars.

Pigs on the Wing?

Champ

Re: Three words:

> Go Go Godzilla!

Oh no, there goes Tokyo!

Judge denies Parler an injunction to force AWS to host the antisocial network for internet outcasts

Champ

Re: Another snowflake

>I, like the OP above am getting a little wary of what's >happening to the El Reg, it has never been so impartial... >And that means it is becoming an echo chamber, just like >Twitter, Parler and FB....

You might want to check the meaning of impartial, before you make yourself look silly

Google to pull plug on Play Music, its streaming service that couldn't beat Spotify, in favour of YouTube Music

Champ

YouTube Music is not available in your area

Looks like I'm not going to be migrating my music to YouTube, then...

I found Play Music very convenient; I ripped new CDs I bought [1] my CDs via a desktop to my NAS, and then uploaded them to Play Music, which made them available on my phone and other portable devices. And I could 'pin' favourite albums to the phone, so could play them when I had no connection.

<sigh> So now more research and tech implementation required

[1] I'm definitely of the generation that buys, not rents, its music. Spotify? Fuck off

The incumbent President of the United States of America ran now-banned Facebook ads loaded with Nazi references

Champ

Re: I didn't know of the triangle badges in the prison camps

Seriously? You think this sort of tragic trolling will work here?

You should probably go back to plying this shit on Facebook

The girl with the dragnet tattoo: How a TV news clip, Insta snaps, a glimpse of a tat and a T-shirt sold on Etsy led FBI to alleged cop car arsonist

Champ

Re: Thoroughly deserved

So you're anti-antifa? Which make you pro-fa, yes?

You do know what the 'fa' stands for, don't you?

Repair store faces hefty legal bill after losing David and Goliath fight with Apple over replacement iPhone screens

Champ

<shrug>

Just one more reason not to buy Apple. But I already had plenty of those

PC owners borg into the most powerful computer the world has ever known – all in the search for coronavirus cure

Champ

Re: Very worthy

Just joined :-)

Your Agile-built IT platform was 'terrible', Co-Op Insurance chief complained to High Court

Champ

Re: Erm

As in this feature, Agile is mostly the current whipping boy for stuff going wrong.

Firstly, "Agile" is a catch-all term for multiple working practices. These can be used brilliantly to deliver high quality, useful systems. But they are no guarantee, and you can definitely produce garbage with them too.

If this project had been run under Prince 2, would anyone be blaming the methodology?

Brexit Britain changes its mind, says non, nein, no to Europe's unified patent court – potentially sealing its fate

Champ

Re: Promises, promises...

So, not Barnier, then. Not even Brussels, in fact.

Just Greece maintaining its entirely justifiable position of wanting back its stuff that the british stole.

Champ

Re: Promises, promises...

> Barnier is increasing his demands. In the last 3 months he has demanded access to UK fishing waters just to start negotiations, plus the Elgin Marbles.

Really? Barnier has demanded the Elgin Marbles? Care to cite a reference for that?

Australia down for scheduled maintenance: No talking to Voyager 2 for 11 months

Champ

The Dish

Is this the same dish that we the title star in the movie, er, "The Dish", starring Sam Neill?

Quite a nice little picture, that

Uncle Sam's nuke-stockpile-simulating souped-super El Capitan set to hit TWO exa-FLOPS, take crown as world's fastest machine in 2023

Champ

Re: And the most unintelligible article title award goes to....

Really?

It was pretty damn obvious to me. Which is why I clicked on it from the daily headlines email

Open-source, cross-platform and people seem to like it: PowerShell 7 has landed

Champ

Re: Who are you and what have you done with Microsoft?

>But Microsoft isn't a normal company. All evidence suggests they haven't listened to what their customers actually want[0] in a couple of decades.

As a former Microsoftie, I really marvel at comments like this. In 35 years in the industry, with 3 at Microsoft, I never worked *anywhere* that paid half as much attention to its customers and what they wanted than Microsoft.

But, I guess it's easier to just keep slagging off the old big bad wolf rather than realise the world might have turned a little.

In case you wanna launch your boss into the Sun, good news: Earth's largest solar telescope just checked and, yeah, it's still pretty fiery

Champ

Re: Reg units

> I expect the Aussies use Tasmania.

Do you have a map?

IT contractor has £240k bill torn up after IR35 win against UK taxman

Champ

Re: I cannot understand why HMRC pursues contractors so much.

> Amazon pay every penny they owe

In Luxembourg

There, fixed that for you

Scientist, war hero and gay icon Alan Turing is new face of the £50 note

Champ

Re: "Cue gags regarding this note being more bent than a 9 bob note"

Can you please list the parliamentary powers which you claim were ceded to the EU?

Take your time.

Brexit: Digital border possible for Irish backstop woes, UK MPs told

Champ

Re: "if Europe agrees to a Brexit transition period"

Where "Leave win #1" was a pretty finely balanced 52:48

Where "Leave win #2" was the UK electorate gaming the UKs FPTP electoral system to deny May the very mandate she went to the country to seek.

Where "Leave win #3" resulted in Remain advocating parties getting a bigger share of the popular vote than Farage the Fascist.

How's those lessons in counting coming along?

I am just a mapper: Solar drones take to the skies above Blighty

Champ

Just because you're paranoid...

...doesn't mean they're not out to get you. I started typing this as a joke, but now it sounds a bit too believable.

The OS story is a cover. These devices are really so the authorities can track and respond to the brexit riots

Treaty of Roam: No-deal Brexit mobile bill shock

Champ

Re: So predictable !

Of all the places for the "technological means" unicorn to rear it's head - not the Reg! Nooo! Here the forums are full of people who actually understand IT, and what it can, and more importantly, can't do.

I'm now very depressed that even here, amongst "my people", someone should seriously promote this nonsense

Congrats, Satya Nadella. In just five years, you've turned Microsoft from Neutral Evil to, er, merely True Neutral

Champ

Yes to Media Center going open source!

There are still quite a few of us running a Win7 box and Media Center to drive our TVs. I'd love it to go open source, so that it might have a future

Microsoft delivers a second preview of Visual Studio 2019 (a Redmond thing we actually like)

Champ

>> Those hair-shirted individuals who like their code to be of the C++ variety

> No women code in C++? Not very inclusive from pro-SJW El-Reg!

Not sure why you think women can't also wear a hair-shirt.

Influential cypherpunk and crypto-anarchist Tim May dies aged 67

Champ

Photo correction

I must be bored, and it's just before Christmas, but I've just uploaded a correct photo to the wiki. It's been "sent to moderation" apparently

Google internal revolt grows as search-engine Spartacuses prepare strike over China

Champ

Re: My advice to Google employees

Maybe it's because I'm in the UK, or maybe because I've just never been that important, but I've never had any problems with criticising my employers.

ICO poised to fine Leave campaign and Arron Banks’ insurance biz £135,000

Champ

Re: Will of the people my arse

>those who supported remain and the ever closer political union, with the

>ceding of sovereignty to un-elected officials

It's my experience that those who most play the 'but sovereignty!' card least understand it.

The only way to be completely sovereign is to be completely isolated. Like North Korea. Otherwise...

- want to join the WTO? Need to abide by rules, that limit sovereignty

- want to join the UN? Need to abide by rules, that limit sovereignty

- want an FTA with <country>? Need to abide by rules, that limit sovereignty

The EU is really about pooling sovereignty, not ceding it.

Goodnight Kepler! NASA scientists lay the exoplanet expert to rest as it runs out of fuel

Champ

Fuel? Why no solar panels?

I didn't think spacecraft were generally powered by a few gallons of 4 star? Why did Kepler use (exhaustible) on-board fuel, rather than (inexhaustible) sunshine?

Love Microsoft Teams? Love Linux? Then you won't love this

Champ

Re: "Vanishingly Small"

> For around 10 years, nearly all the devs I've worked with use linux

Conversely, since I moved away from DEC/VMS in the early 90s, all the dev I have done, and all the Devs I have worked with, have used Windows

Champ

Re: Teams is wonderful if you only talk to one team

You're definitely doing it wrong - it's a piece of the proverbial to engage with multiple teams in Teams.

The only bad thing about Teams is the name, giving rise to sentences like "I've set up a new team on Teams", "Is your team using Teams", etc

Take my advice: The only safe ID is a fake ID

Champ

Mickey, is that you

My disposable email address of choice is m.mouse@evilempire.com, which I came up with after watching a documentary on how delightful Walt was.

HMRC rapped as Brexit looms and customs IT release slips again

Champ

Re: no surprise

> Assuming (no evidence to support this, but it's a reasonable hypothesis) that most people that voted for Brexit agreed with the ideals put out at the time of the referendum, and which have been repeated continuously since then, Brexiteers voted to leave the single market and so end free movement.

I'd say your very first assumption is incorrect, and therefore invalidates the rest of your argument.

Many prominent brexiteers said that brexit didn't mean leaving the single market:

Daniel Hannan: "Nobody is talking about leaving the Single Market"

Farage: "Wouldn't it be awful to be like Norway?" (i.e. proposing that we would in fact be like Norway, who are in the Single Market)

Also, your argument is based on people following the logical conclusion of their thinking. Most people don't do that, most of the time.

We're doomed: Defra's having a cow over its Brexit IT preparations

Champ

Re: Omnishambles.

>THE EU has declared war on the UK, for daring to ask for more...And people had better work out which >side they are on before its too late.

More? We already had significant concessions and opt-outs

>We are witnessing the ugly side of realpolitik, The ugly side of the EU and the ugly side of the Deep State >as well.

Your tinfoil hat has slipped.

Pluto is more alive than Mars, huff physicists who are still not over dwarf planet's demotion

Champ

Surprised no one has posted the XKCD link yet

...so here it is

https://xkcd.com/473/

NASA's Kepler probe rouses from its slumber, up and running again

Champ

Re: 12 kg fuel

> given that a gallon is 4.2L

er, a Real Gallon (tm) is 4.54609 litres, not 4.2

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