Posts by Danny 2

Re: εxεcµταblε is pronounced more like ‘echesmtable’

Time for an eye test.

I just got a handheld magnifying glass and read through six months of unread letters in order. All print is small print! One letter told me I was getting an appointment with an ophthalmologist which I badly need but never asked for so it must be a psychic ophthalmologist. The next letter said it was 6th of June, damn. The next letter said it had been rearranged for later this month, hooray.

Same with the council letters demanding council tax, then taking me to court, then setting bailiffs on me, then giving me a cheque for £130 as an apology for the pandemic then another £150 as an apology for the cost of living. A text, email or phone is preferential.

And the census and TV licence morons which I would have ignored anyway - won't somebody think of the trees?

Because my energy company suspected I'd been stealing energy from them (for using energy without topping up) they accused me and cut off my supply. I was £9 in credit at the time, I've been ill. Why cut off someone in credit? I've threatened to take them to the small claims court unless they recompense me for the contents of my freezer, my fridge and my good name. For what are we worth but our reputation? I asked for around £15.

Re: What's wrong with passwd?

I can't upvote you because naughty, bad puppy.

I agree though that certain accounts don't require hard pass phrases because either the account isn't that important or nobody here could mistake your style.

I do not want biometric passes, TV has taught me that leads to gouged eyeballs and snipped fingers.

Re: To whichever of Musk's lawyers is reading this

"There are gauge changers on the Polish border,"

Ta for that, I never even imagined variable gauge. They don't yet seem to work with freight trains due to weight, so I'd still go with extra track to get the grain into the NATO umbrella where it is safe to be transferred.

Re: Now for the fake Indian call centers

I posted this here 16 days ago:

My mum passes frequent Indian telephone scammers across to me when I'm with her. Pretending to be Virgin Media the guy asked me to check out the lights, which was fine so I asked to speak to his manager. She was spiel, so I asked her to stop talking for a moment so I could. "Are you telling me to shut up? No, you shut up, YOU SHUT UP, YOU SHUT UP"

"Tough day in the scam call-centre, eh? "

I know some Telcos have basic whitelist/blacklist facilities but I've a suggestion that could slash this abuse in future. If some in a prison phones you then you are first told they are in prison and asked 'do you want to accept the call?'

Instead the message would say this call is from a phone in India (or where ever) and it has made 3,000 calls this month, to differentiate call centres from my mum's pals in India.

Or, a number you can call to report the last number who phoned you as a scam, and if more than a dozen complaints are received then that number is blocked internationally.

Re: Disappointing

Def, you downvoted Tom, didn't you. You could have just corrected him politely. If you downvote anyone here then you go to bed with a heavy heart, but if you upvote three people you go to bed loved and covered in dogs.

We're not the enemy, we're Team El Reg. Unless someone is egregious then polite conversation. Put the downvotes down.

Re: Digital transmission?

First night into my first flat, and all the music I had was a Bob Dylan C-90 that a Jewish school mate had made me. It was scratchy, hissy, and I hated that hippy shit, but that was probably the best comp anyone ever made me. The songs made sense in order, he timed the endings in time, and by the end of the night I began to warm to Dylan - in a freezing cold room. Maybe it was the fresh paint smell.

I did buy a CD player, but they were too expensive so I bought an Amstrad hifi and sawed the CD out of it. CDs were so bloody expensive though, I had 200 records and 10 CDs.

people used to make records

you choose

http://www.danah.org/Ani/LittlePlasticCastle/Fuel.html

Quality is in the songs, not the stereos.

Re: Insightful

@Thames

Three minutes, that how long it will take our other centre to resume our work if we get nuked.

"Wait, we're likely to be nuked? Nobody mentioned that."

Or drowned, or terrorism, whatever. The important thing is three minutes downtime maximum.

"I don't think that is the important thing. I'm still more focussed on the nukes,"

I also worked for a wee business who had an excellent backup strategy which they never tested. DAT tapes were all chewed through with age. My first purchase order was for new tapes, and I was made to justify the expense. "Well, do you still want to work here next year?

Re: Possibility of irony?

Two decades ago I told my dad that I wouldn't be at his funeral. "Fine by me, I'll not be there."

I miss my dad every other day, every third dream, but I don't visit his grave. Because he's not there. If his ghost is anywhere then he's right beside me urging me to turn the TV to sports.

Re: language nomination

@Irony Deficient

"Regulation № 1"

Now you can tell from your lack of a single downvote that I was not battling you. I voted for you. I was using irony for humour, and you to your credit admit no sense of irony. That's cool.

Regulation № 1 has to be one of the funniest things I've read anywhere.

Regulation № 1, you will not talk about regulations.

Re: Jokes on them

I was nearly imprisoned on the day I was awarded a bronze badge here. It was headline news at the time, well, here at least because it was funny.

I'd been involved in a court case and had suddenly figured out how to end it so I phoned the police helpline offering to go into the local cop shop to explain. They told me to stay put and an officer would phone me back. I went for a shower expecting to walk there after. Police raid on the house, and when I asked why they said because I used the word epiphany on the phone, they thought I was a danger to myself. If only I'd known the correct term was "mindset reset".

I came down the stairs in a towel to be barked at by two officers, so I explained myself and questioned their actions. "You're talking down to us!" "I am literally sat down looking up at you so I don't appear threatening." "There you go again, talking down to us. You think you're smarter than us." I bit my tongue, I didn't laugh, but an involuntary sigh got me arrested.

12 police raids, some funnier than that, and they only stopped when I threatened to put in an FOI on how many raids they'd been and why (peace protester/terrorist).

Re: Tech dinosaurs

Hold your horses, Septic Dank. Or cool your jets, Jetsons (even that reference is too dated for you, aye?)

Public telephones were a public service, an emergency utility that I doubt were ever profit making.

Not all progress is progressive. Last time I renewed my driving licence I photo-shopped my own selfie, removed some of the red from my face, and posted the paper application for £10. No problem. This time it is £21.50 to get my photo taken at a Post Office because I don't have a passport - which I don't want, can't afford, and currently can't get due to Covid backlogs. You know who most needs photo IDs? Anyone on benefits, the neediest. I wish my library card had my photo and address on it.

You seem to be young, presumably comfortable financially, and lacking in empathy. That's okay, we all were once. Word of advice: It's the fate of every dirty young man to become a dirty old man, if you are lucky.

Help The Aged

Re: You're whinging about a 6.5 pound laptop?

"And when mentioning snowflakes please consider your post demonstrates just how offended you seem to be by something so minor..."

The worst thing about snowflakes is they all think they are so fucking unique.

Re: "the cameras were installed to encourage"

Two decades plus ago I was in Paris when the riot police went on strike. It was surreal. Militarised police in military trucks driving around banging their batons on their shields. Guy Debord meets Monty Python. My jaw hit the ground, but like you said, mais les Français collectively turned a blind eye. C'était normal. IT IS NOT NORMAL!

It's the only country I've ever fought a cop, but to be fair, it's the only place a cop - or anyone - ever pulled a gun on me. I was just complaining at a RyanAir desk, not something that requires a drawn pistol.

There is wonderful BBC footage of a reporter in a Parisian street in soixante-huite talking to camera about a riot, and in the far distance a police motorcycle and side car starts approaching. The camera man can see the cop in the sidecar wielding his truncheon for over a minute but doesn't say anything, until the journalist is floored.

Re: Economic war by the world's bully

"They could refuse to buy another Boeing."

Well one Chinese pilot clearly agreed with you. Even the worst Boeing doesn't hit the planet at 90°.

Electrical tape also works, and is presumably cheaper.

This is England 2022, who would want to spy on school children? Sir Jimmy Savile is dead, and Prince Andrew is busy with jubilee celebrations.

My point being, this is more serious than you seem to think. Not for you or me maybe - me picking my nose or having a wank - but for school kids.

Won't somebody think of the children? No, not you, stop that.

@filippo

I cut and pasted your post down below under my name, albeit with a Joke Ahead icon.

I wasn't mocking your argument or sentiment. My serious point was the ICO may not be toothless but it is underfunded and out classed so impotent. It's akin to the serious fraud office - plenty of bite on the statute books, but a kitten in reality.

There is no effective mechanism to make Clearview AI give up our data, the £7.5 million fine is essentially a windfall tax or a slap on the wrist. I'll change my opinion when company directors are extradited here and face prison time, or lists of all their customers are seized and published.

Once someone has your data, they have your data and you hope in vain they don't pass it along. My mum is on a 'suckers list' and gets scam phone calls all the time.

And it's not just private companies. I've been arrested a fair few times without being charged (as a peace protestor mostly), and on the initial arrests they'd swab me for DNA. I asked why they stopped doing that and they said because they already had it. I said they weren't allowed to keep it if I wasn't charged, after an ICO ruling, and they replied, "No, that is just in England." - it is not just in England, same rules apply! Same rules are ignored.

Re: Russian? CPUs?

"Why am I buying a bag of onions for £1 in Tesco from Egypt?"

Why are you? Tesco sell a 1kg bag of British onions for 0.49p. According to their website their main ingredient is 100% onion, which is how I prefer my onions. I'm not a connoisseur though, maybe Egyptian onions taste better.

Re: Balkenisation?

"I really hate downvoting anyone here because if you made it here then you have to be partly rational."

Ten downvotes and counting. Pile on why don't you.

John Brown (no body). no upvote from you, fix your nation. The US is a mess.. It just is.

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

If you don't hear it then it's fallen on you. Nursery school philosophy. Is it a brown tree, or would someone else see it as blue?

If you were lost in a forest and you didn't have a signal would somebody else track your phone? Well, they could. Last known position, last known direction, start the search there.

I got lost in a forest on an outwards bound course when I was 14. No water, no food, but two pretty girls. Shamefully I did not try my best to evacuate us quickly, never mentioned my map and my compass, rather focussed on my sleeping bag. Some heroic divvy rescued us - them. Ach.

You can fairly accurately estimate the age of an oak by measuring it's width about four feet high. But then that applies to me too.