* Posts by Fading

769 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Sep 2009

Windows 10 to force you to use Edge, even if it isn't default browser

Fading
Windows

Re: Carefully chosen

Problem is they will get 97% positive feedback from said hand full of users and hence roll out this behaviour in many other places.

The constant switch back to edge as default browser after each major update is already an irritation - I don't look forward to regedits just to stop this happening elsewhere.

Yes I do use linux (on my HTPC) but my main machine is used for gaming and the intel chip and intel raid only play nicely with windows (e.g. TurboBoost 3.0 is Windows only) .

Russian anti-antivirus security tester pleads guilty to certifying attack code

Fading
Pirate

Provided tech support?

Which was probably better quality than the tech support provided by big name corporations.... Much as I loathe malware and especially ransom-ware I am strangely heartened that you could get evil tech support if you needed it.

A ghoulish tale of pigs, devs and docs revived from the dead

Fading
Mushroom

Re: Lesson

Back in the real world there is time for testing or time for fixing the bugs discovered during testing or neither. Minimal viable product tends to be what is delivered irrespective of development time. This product will lack pretty much all the features that differentiated it from the previous version during the procurement process and if you are very lucky will at least do 80% of what you need it to do.

Then it breaks and the budget put aside for enhancements rapidly becomes subsumed into fixes and maintenance.

Then the cycle begins again - lessons may be learnt but as only 2 people were around from the last time and are still suffering PTSD it is unlikely to break the software cycle.....

Another day, another meeting, another £191bn down the pan

Fading
Childcatcher

Nobody meetings....

Like the civil service. Pre-meeting meetings, post meeting meetings, meetings to rewrite the minutes for the meetings and more meetings just in case. Admittedly the best place for some people is to be in a meeting as the last thing you want is them trying to do some actual work, that way madness lies.

Vatican sets up dedicated exorcism training course

Fading
Pint

My local.....

Has many spirits I'd happily help "exorcise" - sign me up!

IT peeps, be warned: You'll soon be a museum exhibit

Fading
Terminator

I look forward to working...

For my pointy haired Robot overlords and would like them to note all the nursing of sick computers and electronics I have done over the years......

If this laptop is so portable, where's the keyboard, huh? HUH?

Fading
Paris Hilton

If only.....

The onscreen keyboard was activated......

Fading
Coffee/keyboard

Many years ago...

The IT kit at work whilst not top of the range was pretty good with performance and functionality out of reach of most wage slaves. I now sit in the office with an aging nehalem i7 on a dead flesh Dell keyboard, a trackball older then the first iphone squinting at a 24 inch fat bezel 1080p monitor.

That's why I prefer to work from home - the equipment is much better.....

HomePod, you say? Sex sex sex, that's all you think about

Fading
Holmes

Trouble shooting guides.....

Still available and still as useless as always - no picture - is the TV turned on? - press power button.

Only the brave though read the notes that come with pills - given the list of side-effects a placebo would be preferable.....

Ubuntu wants to slurp PCs' vital statistics – even location – with new desktop installs

Fading

Re: Actually read the article?

Exactly my feelings on this, I would also prefer the ability to edit the info before collection. I am always happy to supply details to any survey as long as they know I may not be honest with my responses.....

Home taping revisited: A mic in each hand, pointing at speakers

Fading
Angel

Re: the good old days

http://retromash.com/argos/

No need to thank me.....

Web searching died the day they invented SEO

Fading
FAIL

Re: The B ark.....

Auto-correct strikes again.......

But if you search I am pretty sure there will be some pics of cat picks somewhere....

Fading
Boffin

The B ark.....

Looks like the members of the B ark have taken over the internet - time to partition off the marketing/consumer side run by google and have another "light web" (like the dark web but this time only for enlightenment rather than access to silk road) - and it will only use IP6 and wikipedia will be useful.....

Nah... probably be just full of cat picks again....

Ever wondered why tech products fail so frequently? No, me neither

Fading

UAT....

There are five stages of UAT;

Denial: - this is not what we specified

Anger: - No really this is not what we asked for the damn thing doesn't even do what the old system did!

Bargaining: - if you can just make it do the original thing we might be able to sign off the first phase?

Depression: - I can't believe we paid so much and we will have to use this.

and Acceptance.

UAT - testing the users until they accept what you have developed.

RIP Ursula K Le Guin: The wizard of Earthsea

Fading
Thumb Up

A few more for the Kindle

I must admit I had not read any Ursula K Le Guin - an oversight that my Kindle will resolve on my commute home.

Death notice: Moore's Law. 19 April 1965 – 2 January 2018

Fading
Mushroom

Moore's Law Dead?

Much like the desktop, HDD, vinyl, magnetic tape, internal combustion engines and side burns. With all these dead things still very much a part of our lives (excluding the side burns) is this what the zombie apocalypse looks like?

Aut-doh!-pilot: Driver jams 65mph Tesla Model S under fire truck, walks away from crash

Fading
Holmes

Cut collisions by 40 per cent?

"The safety board did note in its report that the introduction of Tesla's Autosteer software had cut collisions by 40 per cent."

Not sure I believe this even after reading the report (also given the 10 percent reduction in New York's crash rates alone during the same period - I haven't checked all the states figures to see if this is repeated across the whole USA).

I suspect the figure is accepted due to confirmation bias: earlier in the report we get this quote "IIHS research shows that AEB systems meeting the commitment would reduce rear-end crashes [emphasis added] by 40 percent"

Need better research before the 40% factoid is accepted.

NHS: Thanks for the free work, Linux nerds, now face our trademark cops

Fading

The left hand doesn't know.....

Where the fuck the right hand has got to never mind what it is doing.... I suspect this is the usual civil service incompetence camouflaged as bureaucracy where this cease and desist letter is from someone who didn't know what NHoS linux is but wants them to stop doing it anyway because NHS. Oh well when the next zero day MS flaw causes the NHS to lose their entire system I'm sure heads will roll.... or not.... promotions all round huzzah!

Remember those holy tech wars we used to have? Heh, good times

Fading
Flame

Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be......

The flames of youth are dying embers now, the causes that inflamed our passions burnt out leaving nothing but the taste of ashes, the flavour of victory and defeat alike. No more do we build our self esteem on the causes of the benighted few, no more close our minds and ears to keep safe our illusions. For all has fallen by the wayside and naught but our aging comrades in arms understand the costs we paid.....

Still my Spectrum is better than your Commodore.....

GIMPS crack whip on plucky processor to find largest prime number

Fading

Just add the digits together....

If the resulting number is divisible by three then the original number was......

We translated Intel's crap attempt to spin its way out of CPU security bug PR nightmare

Fading
Paris Hilton

Gamers?

Keep seeing that gamers will be unaffected. But surely that only applies to local gaming? Any online multiplayer server will be hitting the I/O hard, and your own network card gets a fairly good workout on a 64 player server?

Bench-marking multiplayer modes is always difficult (as you cannot standardise the test) - and whilst local frame rates may not be impacted, latency will be?

How much will Britain's next F-35s cost? Not telling, says MoD

Fading
Joke

Re: There's something I don't get

Obviously the French get better value for their used equipment (never fired only dropped once)...

Oh good. Transport for London gives Capita £80m for WAN, LAN and Wi-Fi

Fading
Terminator

Well......

At least it's not our favorite FrankenFirm..........

Yes, your old iPhone is slowing down: iOS hits brakes on CPUs as batteries wear out

Fading

Re: So, instead of warning the user of the issue...

And of course there is no function for you to adjust when this kicks in - for all we know it just kicks in after 500 battery cycles irrespective of the actual physical state of the battery. Shades of the VW emissions scandal or nVidia's not quite 4GB 970 GPU here (reduce power to keep phone barely functional v reduce power to pass testing procedures v reduced memory speed at 3.5 - 4 GB levels)

When is honesty from companies going to make a come back?

Exploding alien bodies' space death-rays gave Earth its radiation cloak

Fading
Alien

Radiation shields to maximum.....

So they've found spaceship earth's radiation shields - now if they can find the engines and bridge we can really take this baby for a ride......

At Christmas, do you give peas a chance? Go cold turkey? What is the perfect festive feast?

Fading
Mushroom

Re: What about cooking disasters?

You want a bang? - had a similar situation where the glass in the oven door exploded Xmas morning before lunch was due to be started.... Turkey and spuds round to my sister's to be cooked with frequent calls to coordinate the hob cooked elements. Roast spuds warmed by re-frying on the hob (journey time between houses - 10-15 mins) and all was well.

One hell of a bang though - just glad it went before we had put the meat in.

Oh and I'm not spatacus' brother.......

New battery boffinry could 'triple range' of electric vehicles

Fading
Mushroom

Anyone else concerned...

With riding around in your new car atop large quantities of phosphorus (highly reactive), Lithium (highly reactive) and sulfur (fairly reactive except with gold, platinum, iridium and tellurium)?

Great battery tech if it works - even better chemistry set if it doesn't......

Forget Bruce Willis, Earth's atmosphere is our best defense against meteorites

Fading
Mushroom

Re: Doesn't follow

I am with you on this one - there hasn't been enough research done on a Willis cannon for defense against meteorites. Given the average density of Hollywood stars some simple back of the beer mat F=MA calculations and we could have a working prototype within weeks. Now where did all those bits for Saddam's Babylon project end up?

Europe Commission thunders: Tech firms must do more to remove extremist content

Fading

Yet....

Though they are happy to open up anything that may require customs duty being applied......

Boffins foresee most software written by machines in 2040

Fading
Mushroom

2 years after...

The entire internet dies due to the UNIX 2038 bug? We'll be back coding with punch-cards in 2040.

Investigatory Powers Act: You're not being paranoid. UK.gov really is watching you

Fading

Operation haystack...

If they can legally keep my entire internet footprint I should make it as legally large as possible - so a few automated bots adding extenuous links to everyone of my online interactions. A few PB each and even google wouldn't be able to help for all the tax breaks in Ireland....

French activists storm Paris Apple Store over EU tax dispute

Fading
Joke

The protesters left the store.....

After purchasing only 16 Iphone Xs and refusing Applecare for all but 2 of them.

Badass alert: 1 in 5 Brits don't give a damn about webpage crypto-miners

Fading
Coat

CPU cycles?

With only four cores in my CPU then a big fat no. Now if you wanted to use a couple of my stream processors in my GPU - as long as it took less power than rendering the adverts we might have a deal......

Aviva dumps DXC, shoves data centre support at Atos

Fading
Thumb Up

Re: Aviva

Cough - stealing and paraphrasing the above to convince the director to keep my new project in house......

What will drive our cars when the combustion engine dies?

Fading
Facepalm

Re: Inductive Charging On Motorways

I'm pretty sure large electro-magnets crisscrossing the nation will cause havoc with the navigation of a large number of migratory species - but probably safer than tesla coils (C&C Red Alert style).

Fading

Re: The downvotes on your post

EVs will not save the world from particulate matter.

http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC89231/jrc89231-online%20final%20version%202.pdf

Sticking your head in the sand probably won't either.

Fading

And the food you buy is delivered...

How again?

Yes for a subset of individuals an electric car makes perfectly good sense. For goods delivery, trade and actual work (where a car is a necessity and not a luxury) electric cars are not such a good fit. Have you calculated the amount of lithium required to replace even just the new cars sales rather than the entire fleet of vehicles on the road? Where is all this going to come from (give you a clue there is not enough on planet earth with current battery tech to do the replacement). This is not "shill" speak to hold back progress this is black hat (Edward deBono not IT security) practicalities.

If EVs were "superior" to ICE than ICE would have lost to EVs back in the beginning (Porsche produced their first Hybrid back in 1898) . EVs are to ICE as DAB is to transistor radio - more expensive, not suitable for all uses, uses more resources to create and uses more electricity to run.

Given https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017_christy_mcnider-1.pdf we have plenty of time to replace ICE with something better.

Canadian! fella! admits! hacking! Gmail! inboxes! amid! Yahoo! megahack!

Fading
Happy

Re: Earth is flat too?

Pinched from another forum;

The only thing flat-earther's fear is sphere itself.

Apple embraces El Reg! iOS 11 is now biting the hand that types IT

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Joke

I cannot tell; suffice to say, one of the words Apple cannot hear!

No, not "is"! You wouldn't get very far in life not saying "is"!

Mythical broadband speeds to plummet in crackdown on ISP ads

Fading

Re: About time....

Unlike many of the ISP provided routers other main brands provide USB sockets for external storage drives. I was merely highlighting other functionality provided by non-ISP provided routers so that the investment in your own router is above an beyond solving wifi bandwidth/conectivity problems.

Fading
Happy

About time....

Though "up to" is now forever synonymous with "un-bloody-likely".

A little advice to all you VM subscribers everywhere. Use the equivalent of 2 months subs and go out a buy your own router - put the not so "super" hub (version 1,2 or 3) in modem mode and connect your nice new router (some good deals already available due to America's black Friday event - happy thanks giving to our colonial cousins btw) .

With your new (half decent) router you will be able to prioritise traffic, set your own rules, have shared storage and have wonderful wifi and cabled internet speeds. Best thing I ever did (home network wise).

Abolish the Telly Tax? Fat chance, say MPs at non-binding debate

Fading
Holmes

And hence......

Are willing to pay for content. So why not go the subscription route?

Fading
Paris Hilton

Really?

"What it seems to suggest is that the petitioners believe that their provider – whether Sky, BT or Virgin – should somehow pay the licence fee, even though the petitioners still want to watch BBC services."

As everyone "still wants to watch BBC services" then a subscription model would surely bring in a higher revenue - think of the enforcement savings alone they could make......

More than half of GitHub is duplicate code, researchers find

Fading
Holmes

Re: The mote in thine eye

Using the scientific method in research seems to be a lost art......

It was El Reg wot won it: Bing banishes bogus Brit bank banner ad

Fading
Facepalm

Re: FAIL!!

Have an uptick - TSB the bank that likes to say 404 error.....

Though to be fair Nationwide has recently topped the "computer says no" charts.

Help desk declared code PEBCAK and therefore refused to help!

Fading
Facepalm

Could be a symptom of an even worse event...

Such as an un-requested Win 10 installation......

Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

Fading
Holmes

Which leads to the simple conclusion....

The is no such thing as real news.....

How about that time Russian military used a video game pic as proof of US aiding ISIS?

Fading
Alien

I hoping to see....

More computer game images used as "intel" - perhaps European hen embryo shortage as depicted in Chuckie Egg? Or Boris Johnson trapped in a large mansion until he has cleared up all the bottles?

Pastry in a manger: We're soz, Greggs man said

Fading
Mushroom

Hmm Halal pork sausage....

How much boycotting is actually happening BTW or is this merely twitter outrage (tm)?

The day I almost pinned my tushie as a Google Maps landmark

Fading
Unhappy

I was so worried.....

I immediately sent lots of my naked pics to facebook - they sent them back with a cease and desist letter and confiscated my camera.....