* Posts by Calum Morrison

209 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2007

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Cory Doctorow has a plan to wipe away the enshittification of tech

Calum Morrison

Re: Deliberation

Not saying they're not a concern but they don't have anything like the reach that Google has. My 2009 Alfa Romeo 159 had a rather sorry MS-branded USB hi-fi that allowed me to scroll through MP3 tracks on a memory stick. A 2023 Volvo (or Polestar, or Geely, or London Taxi...) has its entire operating system run by Google, collecting metrics on everything from location to weather to traffic to music played, to passengers carried etc, etc, etc. Now that's a lot of data.

Calum Morrison

Re: Deliberation

None of them were, but Google was just better. Remember their super clean interface, just as the rest started cluttering things up.

Calum Morrison

Re: Deliberation

Easier said than done; I'd love to see it, but Altavista wasn't embedded in almost literally everything back then so it was easier for us all to switch to this hot new thing that just worked. Google have been very clever about how far and wide they have grown. There's barely an area of business, never mind just technology, that doesn't have it plumbed in like a canc, err, viru, err... Hell, it's been a verb for a generation. And to think, we used to worry about Microsoft's dominance.

Microsoft pulls the plug on WordPad, the world's least favorite text editor

Calum Morrison

Re: It's all crap

Not sure what you're using, but if it's better than O&O AppBuster (I think El Reg mentioned it a couple of years ago) then please let me know. OOAPB is the first thing that runs on any new PC that crosses my path. Just why each PC has so much X Box crud on it, I don't know...

Tech support done bad sure makes it hard to do tech support good

Calum Morrison

Re: Its always DNS except when its configured with an IP address :)

Because DNS is *never* the issue.

You don't get what you don't pay for, but nobody is paid enough to be abused

Calum Morrison

Re: is 10x $$$ normal?

With consumer broadband, they'd likely then have just had ten lines out of action and ten routers needlessly consuming power in a cupboard somewhere.

Digital memories are disappearing and not even AI or Google can help

Calum Morrison

Re: Preserve the meaning of our personal past

If computing continues to accelerate at the rates we've seen, a kid's toy of the future will have the power to decrypt all your strongest encryption. That's almost guaranteed.

Another month, another bunch of fixes for Microsoft security bugs exploited in the wild

Calum Morrison

Re: Ah, Patch Tuesday...

More than one reboot per patch Tuesday is very unusual; trust me, my users would soon complain if it weren't. These guys never reboot their PCs except when forced to :-(

Dell Command will look to restart it too if it's applying firmware or pretty much anything else, but it's usually possible to update Windows and Command on the same reboot.

Calum Morrison

Re: Ah, Patch Tuesday...

He's absolutely not saying that; he said no separate reboots were required. Remember the old days of Windows when a typical PT would require install, reboot, install, reboot etc. depending on what was needed. In the days of Windows 10 and 11, one reboot is usually all that's required.

Calum Morrison

Re: Ah, Patch Tuesday...

Mixed network of HP and Dell i3 and i5 desktops and laptops. Monitored a couple manually this week to watch how the patching went; max of half an hour each including download (OK, via WSUS from a local server) and reboot. Even building a new PC would take no more than an hour or two on typical hardware, downloading updates over a 300Mb leased line.Are you on dialup?

Calum Morrison

Re: Ah, Patch Tuesday...

If it's taking that, errr, maybe tell Mint to give it a bit more resource? No Windows PC with the recommended hardware for the OS will take 3 hours to update.

Workload written by student made millions, ran on unsupported hardware, with zero maintenance

Calum Morrison

Lucky it was switched off when (and by) the cleaner was running the hoover then or it'd have caused financial meltdown in the US each evening.

If you like to play along with the illusion of privacy, smart devices are a dumb idea

Calum Morrison

Re: Why would a Washing Machine require my Date of Birth ...

So they can sell it of course! My DuckDuckGo app tracking protection reminds me weekly that, for some reason, my Hoover washing machine is trying to give my birthday and many other items of information to Verizon media. I'm sure it's all perfectly innocent.

The price of freedom turned out to be an afternoon of tech panic

Calum Morrison

Re: I'll assume this was America

I know of at least one with an Eastern theme that has no ties to the US, and famously a Brazilian-styled chain was in the news a few years ago for sharp practices. Not every baddie is American - we have plenty of homegrown crooks.

Calum Morrison

Re: I'll assume this was America

If you think this sort of thing only happens in restaurants in the US and not the UK then you've lead a sheltered life. Some of our "favourite" chains shaft their staff for all sorts of things like this as a matter of course - it's endemic.

How prompt injection attacks hijack today's top-end AI – and it's tough to fix

Calum Morrison

Re: Can you help?

Fuuuuuuuuuck!!!! The AI knows more about XKCD than the geeks do. This is it folks, the biggie. We're doomed. I for one welcome our new etc.

Microsoft: Patch this severe Outlook bug that Russian miscreants exploited

Calum Morrison

Re: Update progress?

If you need to remove all the crud that comes pre-installed with Windows (including Skype and X- Box etc.) you need O&O App Buster. Someone mentioned it on here a few months ago and it's been part of my installation routine ever since. It's just fantastic.

Requiem for Google Reader, dead for a decade but not forgotten

Calum Morrison

Re: Article written by an idiot

No, I think it even has Lars' seal of approval these days - it's just a Spotify/Apple Music/Deezer/Amazon Music clone albeit a bit laggy in the interface and the release schedules. Its main saving grace for me is not giving any cash to Daniel Ek.

Calum Morrison

Re: Article written by an idiot

That's a compliment from one geek to another. How many of us do things a certain way because we're perfectly happy doing so and it pleases us, even though we know there's easier methods? I took some time last night to use MP3Tag to tidy up the cover art and track listings of a couple of albums when it would be far easier just to stream from my Napster subscription than curate my own collection. Napster you ask? Why yes, I use a slightly crappy, more limited music service because it apparently pays a teensy bit more than Spotify per stream to the artists I cherish. Ans sometimes I listen to the same music on vinyl.

Microsoft begs you not to ditch Edge on Google's own Chrome download page

Calum Morrison

Re: Pot, kettle...

It is indeed their browser and yes, they can do what they like with it, but - call it a gentleman's agreement - it's not something browsers have done in the past so it's unexpected at best, unwelcome at worst. If I host a website, I like to think that I have a degree of control over what "it" displays to the user. OK, I give up some of that if I sell ads on it, but there's a quid pro quo there. In this case Google are actually harmed by it (no, I'm not crying for them either) and the worry is where this will stop - I already have to disable the News and Interests pop-up from displaying clickbait links from downmarket tabloids if I happen to brush my mouse over it so it's not like MS don't have form.

Calum Morrison

Re: Pot, kettle...

How is it different? Really? Google is THEIR search results page that THEY code and host. They can do what the hell they like with it, just like Microsoft can do what the hell they like with Bing for what it's worth. This is Microsoft ostensibly placing code on Google's page and that is wrong. That's what's different.

Calum Morrison

Re: This isn't that new

Yep, but that's on Bing, their own site. This is ostensibly on someone else's web site - it's annoying, it's creepy, and - per the article - it's potentially the start of a slippery slope in terms of what users come to expect of a browser so could be a behavioural security issue.

Being quite honest, Microsoft's tricks to prevent me using the browser and PDF app of my choice only make me more determined. Just how often do they expect me to believe that some weird thing has happened that's meant both have had to be reset to Edge?

Big Apple locals hire Russians to game New York's taxi system

Calum Morrison

Re: What is this shit?

That sounds a better bet, though persuading the Mrs that she'd then want to transfer to a second taxi after a GLA-LHR shuttle, transfer, 7ish hours to JFK, 2 hours immigration then an hour in traffic may be my undoing!

Best result ever was BA mislaying our luggage meaning we were deposited at Newark with our $250 compo vouchers (c/o business class on Avios) and nowt but hand baggage - quick train into Penn and up the stairs to our digs in the New Yorker. The luggage arrived by next flight and courier the next morning - result!

Calum Morrison

Re: What is this shit?

If you don't mind going round everyone else on the shuttle's hotels first... Can be a bargain if you're first off, a nightmare if you're last ☹

Blockchain needs a reason to exist, Boris Johnson tells roomful of blockchain pros

Calum Morrison

Re: Johnson on the post-PM lectures circuit gravy train, yes, but...

My thoughts entirely - is he there to inject a bit of glamour to the proceedings? Stardust? It's weird because an audience of blockchain shysters are surely the audience least susceptible to the pish he hawks.

Calum Morrison

Imagine actually paying to hear that guff - it was bad enough reading the soundbites. I wonder if his fee was in bitcoin?

Job 1: Get the boss on the network. Job 2: Figure out why Job 1 broke the network for everyone else

Calum Morrison

Re: The situation after this

Don't worry, neither did Scott - it's one of our older Scottish jokes:

What's the difference between Bing Crosby and Walt Disney?

Bing Sings and Walt Disnae.

Luckily we've invented Billy Connolly and Kevin Bridges since.

LG debuts thin malleable screens made from contact lens material

Calum Morrison

Re: Visors

It's made of contact lens polymer so why stop at visors; this sort of stuff is going to be on or in your cornea in our lifetime... I'm guessing El Reg will be able to get a quote from that mad/self aggrandising prof that used to implant chips in his arms on this one.

Porsche wants to sell you a rusty tailpipe soundbar for $12k

Calum Morrison

Re: Bah

The 4L is being reinvented as an EV so I guess if you switch the petrol engine off, there's your setting.

Calum Morrison

Re: Bah

I don't know if this is sadder, but those systems are purely for the occupants of the car and don't really carry outside. With most cars being turbocharged these days, the engines are a lot quieter hence the "need" for this. Some Renaults allow you to choose from a range of different classic cars from their range. More interesting is the technique Ford - and I think Porsche themselves - use where real engine sound is fed into the cabin via series of pipes and diaphragms from the engine bay. At least that's sort of real.

Calum Morrison

Re: It's gotta be hot and glassy...

My 911 exhaust had valves in it and they enhanced the sound too.

Your next PC should be a desktop – maybe even this Chinese mini machine

Calum Morrison

It's maybe a bit of an esoteric issue, but Outlook annoys the hell out of me - in many more ways to be fair - in the way it absolutely will not remember window size or position, particularly wrt open emails as opposed to the main application itself. I think it was a review on here that found me the solution - FancyZones via MS PowerToys on Win 10. You basically draw out a selection of zones on your desktop then, using shift, move windows into those zones and they snap in and stay there. Outlook opens on he left two thirds of my main monitor, emails in the half, overlapping the main window but always the same damn size. Revelation!

You may be able to use it to solve some of your issues with multiple monitors - it's free so you may as well try...

Cops swoop after crooks use wireless keyfob hack to steal cars

Calum Morrison

Re: motors from two French automakers

My first thought was Citroen / Peugeot, but as you say they're Stellantis so many many more brands would be implicated - the technology shared between a Vauxhall corsa and Pug 208 is almost total.

I think Renault and Nissan are a bit less integrated though arguably Renault / Alpine would count as two French brands so that may be who it is. an Alpine A110 is effectively a Renault mechanically so I assume its security system will be too.

Of course, this doesn't count Dacia (and indeed Lada until earlier this year) but then they famously avoid technology that adds little to a car that their customers really want.

Doctor gave patients the wrong test results due to 'printer problems'

Calum Morrison

Re: Photocopier challange

Not all car parks are created equal; imagine it was a series of spaces along the side of a building on a one way street where the building was on the left (UK passenger side) so there was no option other than to drive in and out.

Calum Morrison

Re: re: How do you add fuel?

The current company car is a Volvo and the fuel filler release button is pretty much as daft; it only unlocks it so you still need to get out and actually press the flap to pop it open. That can take quite a bit of futile button pressing to discover... Presumably a safety or security feature and probably documented in the handbook, but that's a PDF on the infotainment system so that's not getting read.

Calum Morrison

Re: Photocopier challange

I had a panicked call from my wife a few years ago as she was trying to unpark her Audi A6. She'd parked facing down a slope with nothing in front but now there was a car there and it was quite close. When she engaged reverse to give herself room to turn, the electronic parking brake released and her car moved forward before she could catch the bite point and move backwards. She caught it on the foot brake but was now too close to the car in front to pop the clutch and reverse hill start - she is a good driver and this shouldn't be an issue but it was like the parking brake was broken. She was stuck and in a hurry but couldn't leave the space without hitting the car in front. We couldn't figure it out and there was nothing in the handbook so she ended up having to wait for that car to leave - luckily not long.

It was some time later I was in a similar position in the car and the same thing happened. Not sure how, but by chance, I discovered that it was an undocumented feature to do with the seatbelt. I forget the details now, but I think it was belt on, handbrake disengaged automatically, belt off, it didn't. Fine in most circumstances but not in this case! A colleague had a similar generation car and she had exactly the same issue. The model my wife replaced it with (slight facelift car, 2014 rather than 2012 model) no longer did this...

Enough with the notifications! Focus Assist will shut them u… 'But I'm too important!'

Calum Morrison

Re: Windows System Sounds - office hell!

Pascall, you can indeed turn the sound off, but a lot of people don't like you fiddling with their PCs so you either have to do it surreptitiously or - as would be easiest - via GP.

Calum Morrison

Windows System Sounds - office hell!

In the old days, users needed speakers to annoy everyone in their office with bings, dings, dongs and whooshes so it was a relatively rare phenomenon. Since pretty much every PC has a built in speaker now and laptops all do, any open plan office is a hellscape of windows and Outlook notifications unless they're disabled - particularly as volume sliders are usually set to max for Teams calls, youtube vids etc.

Most people don't notice or know how to silence these constant bloody nuisances and it's not a system-wide option - it's per profile, with Windows seemingly even copying the WAV files into each user's profile so even deleting at source doesn't help. As far as I can find, there's no GP method to do it (why!!!???) so every single user I set up has to have it done manually - in the old XP-style dialogue box natch as Windows 10's sound panel doesn't seem to do it. It's either that or know that Betty in accounts has hit the wrong bastarding key yet a-f**ing-gain.

I hate you Microsoft.

Calum Morrison

Re: talky toaster?

Doesn't every microwave do that? Mine also beeps loudly every couple of minutes after finishing if you don't open the door. Arguably a safety reminder, but annoying AF.

My in-laws gave us a toastie maker as a wedding gift that doesn't beep at all - for some reason Breville decided it should play "comedy" celebrity impersonations, loosely themed on toasties. Even when we received it back in 2004 it was dated stuff - Ooh Mavis, Ken and Deirdre Barlow type guff that would even embarrass Les Dennis back in the 80s. It was truly dire and yet also utterly awesome in that very terribleness. Of course we've still got it...

Apple's new MacBook Air: Is the jump to M2 silicon worth another $200?

Calum Morrison

Linux will be on the desktop before Apple runs out of fanbois to bilk.

Bill Gates says NFTs '100% based on greater fool theory' amid crypto cataclysm

Calum Morrison

Re: He's partly right

IIRC, Stellantis (the company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot Citroen etc.) are using NFTs to store and track car service and condition details. With the way clocking, cloning etc. is used to defraud customers, this could actually be an unsexy but useful implementation of the technology.

Microsoft CRM tool to pull sales data from email, Teams calls, Office 365

Calum Morrison

Re: Don't undestand any of that........

And in the 2010s, though you'd be hard pressed to tell one from 50 paces:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/cars/vauxhall/viva

Sun sets on superjumbo: Last Airbus A380 rolls off the production line

Calum Morrison

My then office was on the flight-path (What's it called? Cumbernauld!) and one day in the summer there was the highly unusual - and probably unique - sight of a Virgin 747 tailing the Emirates A380 over the Campsies.

That was in 2019 and I think it's safe to say we'll never see the likes of that approaching Glasgow again ;-(

Arrivals must have been mobbed shortly afterwards.

MySQL a 'pretty poor database' says departing Oracle engineer

Calum Morrison

Re: There is no reason not to choose Postgres

Doubt it; he sounds like an Access fanboi.

Calum Morrison

Re: There is no reason not to choose Postgres

You completely failed to process the joke. Were you querying it in Excel?

Fatal Attraction: Lovely collection, really, but it does not belong anywhere near magnetic storage media

Calum Morrison

Re: Aye, smells like shite tae me.

Definitely the latter, at least for them corrupting the hard disk. Potentially corrupting files en-route to the disk - maybe even a keyboard cable - but if it were the disk itself it'd be more than just a few Word docs. Looking at the age of the story, Word in those days was more than capable of corrupting its own output...

Correlation is not causation.

Calum Morrison

Also the fact it only seemed to be the user's documents that were getting corrupted, but none of the OS or application files on the HDD? Aye, smells like shite tae me.

Is it broken yet? Is it? Is it? Ooh that means I can buy a sparkly, new but otherwise hard-to-justify replacement!

Calum Morrison

Such innacuracy!

Time to award yourself a shiny new factchecker Mr Dabbs as I fear the old one is rusty. I'm pretty sure Josh Homme wasn't touring with EoDM when they were caught up in the Bataclan tragedy; they're one of those bands (many actually featuring Josh Homme) that has something of a revolving lineup. QoTSA are indeed another (I've been lucky enough to see them with Lanegan singing live - awesome) but I seem to recall reading an interview with Homme where he was discussing the trauma-induced breakdowns his friend and bandmate Jesse Hughes had suffered since that night. Truly horrible for everyone concerned.

The old New: Windows veteran explains that menu item

Calum Morrison

Re: Always an important consideration

Yeah, that sounds about right. DOS just rebooted straight away but 9x did give you a sort of option that sometimes worked. Ahh, happy days...

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