* Posts by David Nash

1434 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Jul 2008

Boss put chocolate cake on aircon controller, to stop people using it

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Heating / Aircon

27 degrees!

The problem is that of the frog in the boiling water.

She's cold so turns it up and it gradually goes up until it's 27. She doesn't notice the increase except that she starts to feel no longer cold.

Whereas you walk in and it's like getting off a plane on your summer holiday.

Car trouble: Keyless and lockless is no match for brainless

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Google really is your friend for this kind of stuff

"Stuff like how to reset the service indicator/read the service codes yourself without the dealer charging you £xxx for the same."

Slightly more complex stuff like that, yes, but mundane things like how to lock, stop the alarm going off, start the engine, well, having to look that up is ridiculous.

Humble civil servant: Name public electric car chargers after me

David Nash Silver badge

Electric != Driverless

Why are these two topics conflated so frequently?

David Nash Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Bah!

Sorry that's Haynes, not Hayes.

David Nash Silver badge

"Does, "I need to use the John," have the same connotations in the UK as it does in the US?"

No, although we all know what you mean.

Knock, knock? Oh, no one there? No problem, Amazon will let itself in via your IoT smart lock

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Ah, here it is. I've finally found it.

Agree. I use Amazon a lot, use Prime, Kindle, Video. When necessary I have found their customer services to be very good. But I won't have an Echo. And this latest wheeze takes the biscuit.

Sadly I agree also with the earlier comment about millennials loving it because it's "cool".

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Pickup point?

"I wonder what the insurance companies think of it?"

I wonder if Amazon checked? If I were an insurance company I would say it voids your insurance.

David Nash Silver badge

Re: I must be in the "Beta" programme

This has always mystified me. Fortunately it has never happened to me but what is wrong with these people who think a bin is for leaving something you want to keep safe? Do they not have bins in their own houses? Do they not know what they are for?

Dell forgot to renew PC data recovery domain, so a squatter bought it

David Nash Silver badge

Dell forgot?

The article said it was a third-party that failed to renew the domain, so although the buck stops with Dell, it wasn't really Dell's error except in failing to ensure their chosen third-party had procedures to avoid this.

It's time to rebuild the world for robots

David Nash Silver badge

Re: We redesigned the world for automobiles...

It wasn't a colossal mistake, it was necessary in order to use cars. But it wasn't done in the best way. That is being resolved in some places.

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Oh fuck off ...

It's not necessarily robots getting "better treatment". The whole point of robots is to make life easier for us, including the less able.

I do agree with the sentiments about people blocking kerbs etc. But that's a different argument, that's done by thoughtlessness, not design.

Credit insurance tightens for geek shack Maplin Electronics

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Hobbyist

In my local Maplin they have put them in drawers. Apparently hidden but they are still there.

The component desk is the best bit about Maplin though, it's the only place you can find individual components in a hurry, and at not too bad prices (for a hobbyist low volume kind of thing).

Totally agree with the comments about cable pricing etc. It would be a shame if the high prices forced them to disappear, losing the source of components.

Boffins trapped antiprotons for days, still can't say why they survived the Big Bang

David Nash Silver badge

Re: But we do already know that it annihilates when it comes into contact with matter.

"unless you are happy to consider energy and matter as being the same thing."

I thought that one was done and dusted. E=MC squared and all that.

David Nash Silver badge
Boffin

Re: But we do already know that it annihilates when it comes into contact with matter.

"Which means that the Big Bang explosion must've happened in such a way that matter and anti-matter flew in opposite directions with opposite spins. Because that's the only way they could avoid coming into contact with each other."

It seems to me that the earlier comment about the antimatter flying off in the opposite direction *in time* into another universe with time flowing away from the BB in a different direction than ours sounds like a nice solution. I am not knowledgeable enough to say why this may not be true.

David Nash Silver badge

Re: The universe will now disappear

"Scientists must always question any hypothesis, which current climate models are as they don't predict what is happening currently (always jam tomorrow)."

Question doesn't mean deny. It means look for the evidence, and as I understand it the overwhelming majority of climate scientists look at the evidence and draw conclusions from that.

"Any Theory and even Laws must be constantly questioned if you are a real scientist, that is how we discover new science!!!"

Yes if the evidence doesn't match the Theory.

"The photoelectric effect was not predicted by classical physics and Einstein initiated the idea of photons to solve it (what he got his Nobel prize for), this was the beginning of quantum mechanics."

This wss not denying anything, it's explaining something that was until then unexplained!

"Newtons Laws of Gravity were also challenged by General Relativity and proved to be only local approximations lacking a knowledge of spacetime."

Same as above.

"By your definition you would call Einstein a science denier."

Not at all, see above!

"Side note: evolution as suggested by Darwin is no longer considered how evolution works as he was not aware of how DNA works, evolution has evolved. So if you deny Darwinian evolution that is currently the correct thing to do!!"

Darwinian evolution has been modified with additional detail (the mechanism of DNA) and tweaked in places, not denied.

Once more, with feeling: Dawn to take a closer look at Ceres

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Hundreds of millions of km away

At least some of the science-leaning ones might take note of evidence rather than public opinion or ideology.

Do fear the Reaper: Huge army of webcams, routers raised from 'one million' hacked orgs

David Nash Silver badge

"If you have had anything like this exposed to the Internet you are best off doing a factory reset and probably reflashing the firmware"

Ever? Anything? Including Routers? So that's all of them, then?

Google slides text message 2FA a little closer to the door

David Nash Silver badge

Re: There's no need to install more spyware, thanks.

"I have a few test email accounts that genuinely have the account password "password", and have had it for years because I'm proving a point. You will not get in"

Genuine question, can you provide a clue to how that's done please?

ARM chip OG Steve Furber: Turing missed the mark on human intelligence

David Nash Silver badge

the non-computability of conscious thought...

Well, we can't know whether that is right or not without doing the research.

It doesn't help much to "subscribe to a view" without showing that it is either correct, or not.

No, the FCC can't shut down TV stations just because Donald Trump is mad at the news

David Nash Silver badge

Re: @terra

@Peter Gathercole

Good, considered and measured comment. I'd like to see an appropriate reply from the Trump-defender(s) on here, but I fear I will not.

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Fake News award to shawnfromh

Candidate for FOTW?

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Hyperbole

"Is "Left wing" the new phrase for anyone you dont like now?"

I don't think that's particularly new. It's convenient and doesn't require thought. Like calling them "commie".

Release the KRACKen patches: The good, the bad, and the ugly on this WPA2 Wi-Fi drama

David Nash Silver badge
Mushroom

Summary

So have I got this right?

- I need to patch: My Wifi AP / Router(s) (using the term Router to mean Router-with-AP)

- Every device that might connect to them

and if I miss one or two devices then my network is as good as hacked?

What chance do we have?

Ex-TalkTalk chief grilled by MPs on suitability to chair NHS Improvement

David Nash Silver badge

Re: All aboard the gravy train…

"But I can in no way think that this deserves of a representative of her person burned"

Burning an effigy of someone is in no way suggesting that the person should be burned.

It doesn't affect them at all. Your statement suggests she would suffer from this, if it happened.

WPA2 KRACK attack smacks Wi-Fi security: Fundamental crypto crapto

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Security is dead, long live security

There will clearly be unpatched devices out there pretty much forever. There are shedloads of old models that are never going to be updated.

David Nash Silver badge

"This is a client side vulnerability not AP side"

So why does the article say, "Resolving the security problem is likely to involve applying security update to routers"

It's not clear to me where the vulnerability lies (I appreciate it's not a s/w bug but a problem in the spec).

Drone smacks commercial passenger plane in Canada

David Nash Silver badge

Re: They seek him here...

"General Atomics MQ-1 Predator first and quadcopters second"

For headlines like "IS commander killed by drone hit" yes, it's most likely not a quadcopter. But for "Drone hits commercial passenger plane" it's going to be a quadcopter, no?

Context is key.

Software update turned my display and mouse upside-down, says user

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Now it can be told...

"...switching the wallpaper to an image with the desktop icons on it"

Yes as gskr mentions below, that is a classic. I remember doing it on Windows 3.1. Even better if you mirror-reverse the image beforehand.

Judge says US govt has 'no right to rummage' through anti-Trump protest website logs

David Nash Silver badge

Re: This one should be on *everyone's* radar.

"3) DOJ hunting down users of website"

This is the real 1984-like scary thing. Especially if they wanted details of visitors, rather than (or as well as) registered users.

Dear America, best not share that password with your pals. Lots of love, the US Supremes

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Oh really.

"Oh great, I can stop paying my mortgage and it isn't illegal. Sweet! Of course I shall use you as my legal reference for this."

It's a breach of contract. A contract is not the law. You won't get prosecuted for breaching a contract but you might get sued in a civil court.

Star Wars: Big Euro cinema group can't handle demand for tickets to new flick

David Nash Silver badge

Re: SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Ah, I didn't think "access to a screen" included going to the cinema.

I too saw BR2049 but they didn't show me the Star Wars trailer.

I would have thought that anything in the trailer would be regarded as not a spoiler, since the makers would assume that everyone has seen it.

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Nothing new

I don't remember if they call them "handling" or "booking" charges, but there is nothing to handle these days, they just give you a bar code on screen. Always worth screenshotting just in case the email confirmation goes bad.

David Nash Silver badge

Re: SPOILER ALERT!!!!

"You really think anyone with access to a screen is going to manage to avoid seeing the trailer before release date do you?"

Easy - don't click on the trailer.

'There has never been a right to absolute privacy' – US Deputy AG slams 'warrant-proof' crypto

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Gravity pulls things down.

"Noʇ poʍu ɥǝɹǝ ᴉʇ poǝsu,ʇ"

Yes, your down is just the other way than mine...from the point of view of an outside observer!

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Gravity pulls things down.

Gravity *does* pull things "down" because that's pretty much what "down" means.

OK on a sufficiently large scale and from an outside observer it does other things, but locally, yes, it pulls things down.

NASA readies its asteroid warning system for harmless flyby

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Are you sure?

"Though technically they don't need one for brown"

Yes that was the joke. Why do some people persist in explaining other people's jokes?

David Nash Silver badge

+1 for UTC. Especially as it's an astronomy-related story.

You really do yourselves no favours (translation for the author: favors) by using local units especially in a scientific context.

Microsoft silently fixes security holes in Windows 10 – dumps Win 7, 8 out in the cold

David Nash Silver badge

Re: switching to linux

"Then how will you play games like WoW which are PC-only? Or the likes of Overwatch that prohibit cross-platform gaming? You're willing to give all that up?"

Why are you presuming which games he wants to play? And anyway, he did say "Going to miss PC gaming", so the answer would seem to be yes.

Google touts Babel Fish-esque in-ear real-time translators. And the usual computer stuff

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Audio jack

"why didn't they provide a magnetic connection for 3.5mm jack devices"

You mean "why didn't they replace the 3.5mm jack with yet another incompatible non-3.5mm-jack connnector?"

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Please translate:-

It must be Thursday.

David Nash Silver badge

Spanish has a perfectly good word "Dentro" meaning "inside". If Google is good enough it should be able to figure out that "in the box" translates to "dentro de la caja" not "en la caja".

Subtleties around use of "I" or "you" is possibly more difficult and fraught with danger.

Support team discovers 'official' vendor paper doesn't rob you blind

David Nash Silver badge

Re: What have you fixed with sticky tape?

Fixing Tape with Tape.

Yes, I used to do the same. I even had a special little plastic block that you could put the ends onto to cut them properly with a razor blade.

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Common English words with very different meanings.....

It's exactly the same as freeways and road traffic. A route between two places, be they on the network or on a physical road - presumably pronounced differently in the UK and US/OZ.

Like many other things. Tomatoes anyone?

Dumb bug of the week: Apple's macOS reveals your encrypted drive's password in the hint box

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Indian...

Nope, just a typo or simple mistake - used the password value rather than the hint value.

The real problem was not testing properly to catch this kind of thing.

Australia approves national database of everyone's mugshots

David Nash Silver badge

Laws of Mathematics

Wow...we've all rolled our eyes and complained at Rudd and May's lack of understanding etc. but that is so explicit.

What was he thinking?

Nothing matters any more... Now hapless Equifax bags $7.5m IT contract with US taxmen

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Nothing matters any more...

Good luck finding a "better species".

Any dominant species will be the same. Natural selection will ensure it.

Dropbox thinks outside the … we can't go there, not when a box becomes a 'collection of surfaces'

David Nash Silver badge

Vogon poetry

I am surprised that didn't get more upvotes, given that, at the time I am writing this, it has been there for 4 hours!

Patch your Android, peeps, it has up to 14 nasty flaws to flog

David Nash Silver badge

Re: And people mock me

"I just don't trust it to run apps. They always ask for too many permissions. Don't have that problem with iPhone"

I too had a Sony phone a few years ago, it was very good.

Provided you get apps from the authorised Google Play Store they are almost certainly not malware. And you can refuse individual permissions for apps nowadays. Unlike with Apple, if I understand correctly.

Computers4Christians miraculously appears on Ubuntu wiki

David Nash Silver badge

Re: Direct link to Deity

"Source: an episode of depression several years ago and very nearly topped myself. It was only the local priest who would take time and talk to me."

I am sorry for your depression and glad you were helped. But I would say it's a very edge case for claiming that supernatural forces exist just in case belief in such can help people in that way.

If religion didn't exist, you could just as easily have been helped by a rational humanist for example.

If the guy who had helped you had believed in a different God than you, say he seriously appeared to believe in the old Norse gods, would that have helped and justified such belief?

To be clear: some of the effects of religion can be helpful on occasions but that does not mean that religion is the only way of achieving such effects; nor does it mean that all effects of religion are beneficial.

David Nash Silver badge

"While many open-source advocates might appear to be on a mission from God already, these ones

literally are"

Literally? From God? so you know He/she/it exists?