Sign in / up

* Posts by nematoad

1858 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Sep 2009

Page:

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

nematoad

Old but still true.

“Power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot through the ages”.

It seems as if Stanley Baldwin's words are as true today as they were in 1931. Google is a whore, willing like other "ladies of negotiable affection" to accommodate the wishes of anyone willing to meet their price. They have the power to influence and control what people see and hear but have no intention of taking any responsibility for what they have enabled. It's all about the money and damn the consequences. It won't affect most of them in any way.

5 0

Microsoft readies the swatter as more bugs wriggle out of the Windows 10 woodwork

nematoad

Right.

We all know the old saying "He didn't get the memo". Well it looks like MS did get the memo. Trouble was it was the one meant for Facebook.

You know, the one that reads "Move fast and break things".

Not all IT companies are created equal.

23 0

Facebook spooked after MPs seize documents for privacy breach probe

nematoad
Happy

Yes!

"... it is important not to take claims made in commercial cases like these at face value."

Well now they don't have too. If the documents seized are as revelatory as predicted we may soon know what really went on at Facebook.

15 0

Reverse Ferret! Forget what we told you – the iPad isn't really for work

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Someones noticed at last.

"Phones are 5 or 6 times as inefficient as PCs."

Yes, and an absolute bastard if you have older eyes. Why look through the keyhole when you can just open the door?

27 0

Joe Public wants NHS to spend its cash on cancer, mental health, not digital services

nematoad
Reply Icon
Mushroom

Re: NHS is an oldie's' service

Cor, somebody got out of bed the wrong side this morning.

Being old is, as far as I know, not an arrestable offence and why criticise people who were well into middle or old age before the internet and computing in general? It's not their fault that things have moved so quickly that they are out of their depth with something that is totally foreign to them.

Margaret Thatcher said once that growing old is easy, you just have live long enough. So just wait, your turn will come and you too will be regarded as a burden with nothing to offer, fit only for the knacker's yard.

Vladimir Putin, Kim Jon Un and Xi Jin Ping are politicians who do not need to take any notice of their citizens. Want to live in a country run by these characters?

As the old saying goes "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it".

1 3
nematoad
FAIL

Wrong!

What's the point of IT in the NHS when after you use it you still can't get an appointment due to staff shortages?

As a case of putting the horse before the cart this ranks as a classic.

On the other hand if the revolution in IT means that the private sector gets to cherry pick all the profitable bits then I am sure that the government will be more than happy to oblige

Oh, a last thought. If Capita are involved then we know we are stuffed.

35 1

Microsoft slips ads into Windows 10 Mail client – then U-turns so hard, it warps fabric of reality

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: You paid

Snap!

That system of yours looks a lot like mine, I'm happy to say.

Good isn't it?

10 0

If at first or second you don't succeed, you may be Microsoft: Hold off installing re-released Windows Oct Update

nematoad
Reply Icon
Thumb Down

Re: Schadenfreude

"... instead join together in a creative orgy of cooperation on one distro to finally push Windows aside forever."

That's not going to happen. See the main reason many people including me chose Gnu/Linux is because you have a choice. Choice of distro, desktop, applications and the freedom to get your computer to work the way you want it to, not having to work the way a monolithic, faceless entity makes you. After all, who is the expert in how and why you use your computer? Not MS or Apple that's for sure. Red Hat and Ubuntu have generated lots of criticism and controversy by trying to be the "one distro to rule them all". With Gnu/Linux you have a choice and can go off and fork any project if you need to. See Linux Mint or LibreOffice as excellent examples of that. With a single distro we would soon be in a similar position to that of IE users a few years back. Stagnant, insecure and being told "Like it or lump it"

Too many people appreciate what FLOSS and Gnu/Linux in particular have done for them to throw it all away in a bid to topple a increasingly incompetent, error prone, arrogant company like MS. They are doing a good job on their own.

8 0
nematoad
Reply Icon
Headmaster

Re: Pathetic

"...Windows seams to store a cache"

Spelling! It should be "seems".

Seams are what you get in trousers.

12 2
nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Technical debt

"In the end windows will have to go, windows will end its miserable life as abandonware."

From what I can see it already has. And to think that some people actually have to buy this mess. £119 or thereabouts I believe.

30 2

Google: Our DeepMind health slurp is completely kosher

nematoad
WTF?

Oh, really?

" It may be that there is no controversy whatsoever..."

This is Google we are talking about, isn't it? Their track record regarding the use of other peoples data isn't exactly reassuring.

14 0

Just a little heads up: Google is still trying to convince everyone that web apps don't suck

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: I tried Squoosh

" ...but it does not seem to do anything network-wise once it's launched."

Then you need wireshark.

2 0
nematoad
Reply Icon
FAIL

Re: Web app? No thanks.

"..."make the web a first class platform "

The question is: first class for whom?

Google and their data grabbing pals?

People with FTTP or those living in areas where the ISP and telecoms companies have decided that it is profitable to deliver gigabit connections?

If you are not in one of these groups, and I am not, then I reckon that you will be out of luck.

And anyway, who wants to put their critical applications and data onto the internet? As far as I can see that's just asking for trouble.

17 3

In news that will shock, er, actually a few of you, Amazon backs down in dispute with booksellers

nematoad

Choice

I used to use ABE until I found out who owned it. I switched to another seller Alibris.

Just thought that I would let people know that there are alternatives.

Oh and thanks El Reg, you seem to have given me back my Silver badge. Why it went away in the first place remains a mystery.

4 1

Windows 10 Pro goes Home as Microsoft fires up downgrade server

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: el kabong

"There are other operating systems out there."

Yes, that's right, you could always use Apple's offering. Oh, wait.

12 0

UK rail lines blocked by unexpected Windows dialog box

nematoad
FAIL

"...alas, yet to receive a response."

Can you blame them for keeping quite?

Talk about a balls-up.

Oh, and all the posts about it being an Excel spreadsheet, where were the joke icons?

5 0

Watchdog slams political data slurpers' 'disturbing disregard' for voters' privacy

nematoad
Unhappy

I think not.

"... significantly change their business practices, to earn people's trust."

Why should they? They make a mint of money the way things are and most of their users don't know or care about the misuse of their data. They don't need their users trust because things are going so well for them. They might need their customer's trust if things go on as they are, because all these characters are interested in is money. Sod ethics and doing the right thing.

1 0

Macs to Linux fans: Stop right there, Penguinista scum, that's not macOS. Go on, git outta here

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: "secure" boot is *EVIL*

"It is your hardware after all."

Is it? I think that with this play Apple ventures to disagree.

We knew that Secure boot could be abused so who is surprised at this turn of events?

24 0

We (may) now know the real reason for that IBM takeover. A distraction for Red Hat to axe KDE

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Yep

"... surely KDE3 source is out there somewhere?"

A little late I'll admit but if you are that interested in KDE 3 living on then look at Trinity. See it's in the name, 3, Trinity. They took all the code and have, sort of, maintained it and even done development work. It's good and I used it for a while, but installation on my distro was awkward so I moved to Mate.

Try it, you might enjoy it.

2 0
nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Without KDE, RHEL is GNOME to Hell

"...with functionality similar, identical or more advanced to the one deprecated."

Given the Gnome devs. track record of removing "unwanted" features and thereby reducing the utility of the desktop I'm not sure that the speaker had Gnome in mind when making that statement.

See also: Nautilus.

12 0
nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: But I LIKE KDE!

I too used to like KDE.

It was when they introduced KDE 4 that my enthusiasm waned. I could never ever figure it out. I used Trinity for a while but problems just getting the thing installed led me to Mate. It works and doesn't get in my way which is all I ask of a destop.

13 0
nematoad
Reply Icon

Arggh no.

"let's break Unix traditions and just dismiss anyone who objects as backwards"

Don't tell me, Lennart Poeterring is involved with Wayland?

37 1

Worldwide Web wizard Tim Berners-Lee sticks wellington boot into Worldwide Web's giants: Time to break 'em up?

nematoad

No qualification needed.

"London, England"

I think that most of the world knows what country London is located in. If it had been in London Ontario maybe but London in the UK like "The Open Championship" or "The Football Association" needs no qualification because it got there first.

Note to Donald Trump. There is no "British Open".

12 1

Official: IBM to gobble Red Hat for $34bn – yes, the enterprise Linux biz

nematoad
Reply Icon
Happy

Re: At least is isnt oracle or M$

"Some of those chums (can that number really be called chums) work for RH."

Lennart Poetterring for one.

The future looks bright!

4 0

The D in Systemd stands for 'Dammmmit!' A nasty DHCPv6 packet can pwn a vulnerable Linux box

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: There is a reason ...

"...actively disables the default network manager and chooses to use networkd instead."

Pardon my ignorance (I don't use a distro with systemd) why bother with networkd in the first place if you don't have to use it.

Or was it that it seemed a "fun" thing to do and got shoved in anyway?

31 0

Intel: You'll get 10nm next year – now witness the firepower of this fully armed cash machine

nematoad
Happy

Eek.

Good God, you can see where this character spent his last bonus.

Look at those teeth!

0 0

Yes, Americans, you can break anti-piracy DRM if you want to repair some of your kit – US govt

nematoad
Reply Icon
Happy

Re: Some justice is still available for The People

"...a sub-standard eductation system."

A point well made, I think.

Though looking at the time stamp, maybe not from the US.

9 1

Worrying Windows 10 wrecking-ball weapon weirdly wanders wildly on worldwide web

nematoad
Reply Icon
Thumb Up

Re: safe surfing

"8. Never surf the web with windows, use a live Linux instead."

Yes indeed.

TAILS will do nicely.

5 1
nematoad
FAIL

Snap.

"..with the added twist of the attacker now being able to wipe files."

Oh? I thought that the OS already did that for you.

62 0

Memo to Microsoft: Windows 10 is broken, and the fixes can't wait

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: It's-a rubbish!

"Staggering naivety on the part of the senior management at MS."

I think you are being too generous. In my mind this is nothing to do with naivety but is a cynical "How can we boost our bonuses?" play. MS is not really concerned with their users, all they seem to worry about is how Wall Street reacts. If the money keeps rolling in why should the top brass give a damn about quality and testing? In their minds that is only an expense not something that should be central to all they do.

As the old saying goes"Follow the money."

11 0

So, about that Google tax on Android makers in the EU – report pegs it at up to $40 per phone

nematoad
Reply Icon
Unhappy

Re: The thing that annoys me....

I don't think that that will happen.

The marketing droids and the bean counters will stop any such attempt in its tracks. The safe way is to do Google's bidding and pass the cost onto the customers. After all if everyone is doing it who will the punters turn to?

4 2

Is this cuttlefish really all that cosmic? Ubuntu 18.10 arrives with extra spit, polish, 4.18 kernel

nematoad
Reply Icon
Happy

Re: GNOME, KDE, LightDM, XFCE ...

" ...and discover that certain programs require a specific Desktop."

I don't see what your problem is. I use Mate on PCLinuxOS but I came from KDE many years ago and still prefer some of the KDE utilities like K3B. I just installed K3B and Synaptic went and fetched the KDE runtimes so that K3b would run. Yes I know it uses more space on the drive and introduces other overheads but the systems these days are more than capable of dealing with such issues.

4 1

UK defence secretary ponders £50m hit to terminate Capita recruiting contract

nematoad
Reply Icon

"Did someone not read the small print?"

Probably not. Remember, this money is not theirs. The government has no money, it's ours. Forcibly extracted through taxes. As there seems no downside to making a mess of any contract, project or scheme why would anyone bother with due diligence?

15 2

Chrome 70 flips switch on Progressive Web Apps in Windows 10 – with janky results

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Fixing a problem that no longer exists?

"Where's the problem?"

Google.

3 0
nematoad
Reply Icon
Thumb Down

Re: Please, give me an OFF switch

"Linux and Mac Chrome users will be able to join their Windows 10 and Chrome OS..."

I think I'll pass on that "opportunity". Google are intrusive enough already so why would you trust them with all your applications and data? The question in my mind is: whose computer is it if you start using PWA? Not mine I think.

So thanks but no thanks. My PC will remain my "personal computer" and not some data syphon to Google so that they can sell me to their users.

6 2

Once more with feeling: Windows 10 October 2018 Update inches closer to relaunch

nematoad
Reply Icon
Happy

Re: I'm just wondering

You know something? I'm really glad that I have retired.

The shit hitting the fan courtesy of MS is enough to drown any IT department. God knows there are enough problems around without the OS vendor joining in.

28 2

Raspberry Pi fans up in arms as Mathematica disappears from Raspbian downloads

nematoad
Unhappy

A question.

What's the difference between the likes of MS, Oracle et al and the Raspberry Pi Foundation?

"That said, there's been lots of grumbling, so we might end up putting it back."

With the first group take what you are given and be grateful.

19 3

Sopra Steria exec on warpath as its UK Government profit crashes ... by millions

nematoad

Typical management.

"The exec said he had been forced, in the day before the memo was sent, to explain to his boss, CEO John Torrie..."

Or in other words "I've had my arse kicked, now it's your turn."

Pathetic, why not try to understand the problem instead of foaming at the mouth and blaming everyone but yourself.

If I had shares in this company I would be selling them immediately.

18 0

Trump's axing of cyber czar role has left gaping holes in US defence

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Stupidity or cunning?

"...having a cyber-czar?"

I can imagine a conversation in the Oval Office.

"Cyber-czar?"

"Wait, Czar is a Russian word so it must be a Communist plot. We ain't having none of that foreign garbage here!"

Baby, bath water etc.

15 2

Cookie clutter: Chrome saves Google cookies from cookie jar purges

nematoad
Unhappy

Yep.

Having read the above article I checked my cookies, which is something I do regularly especially with anything from Google, and lo and behold there was a Google nasty sitting there. Now I don't use Chrome or anything else from Google so it has me puzzled as the where it came from. Maybe a drive-by from a site associated in some way with these characters?

As I use Palemoon I was able to deep-six it immediately.

Turds of the first water.

7 3

That syncing feeling when you realise you may be telling Google more than you thought

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: The problem isn't "google slurp" alone

A bit off topic I suppose but your mention of a silver badge hit a nerve.

I used to have one but it disappeared a while ago.

As you can see I still have the html privileges but I want my badge back!

Alternatively it could be a post-badge syndrome a bit like when an MD becomes a surgeon and reverts to "Mister".

5 0

Brit armed forces still don't have enough techies, thunder MPs

nematoad
Reply Icon

"a not insignificant proportion of new recruits get the engineering training and then leave at the first opportunity ..."

I'm not sure what the waiting time is now to get out of the Army early, it It is a long time since I did so. But the reason I bought myself out wasn't the lure of civvy street and its better jobs, it was that we were given nothing constructive to do. I was in the RAMC which I believe has a recruitment problem, they certainly did when I was there. The trouble was once they had you they struggled to find something for you to do. In my case it was putting up tents for the TA training camps and when I made enough of a nuisance of myself they shipped me off to BAOR where they had me counting stores and painting shovels and other important items.

It is true that the alternative i.e. having to handle badly wounded soldiers and recovering bodies would have been infinitely worse but as a young soldier I wanted to see the world not paint it. So I left.

Things may well have changed since I were a lad but being bored, underpaid and under appreciated might still have something to do with the problems of retention.

13 0

MPs' proposal to cash in on public-private algos given a solid 'maybe'

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: "MPs [..] call for this to be leveraged"

Being politicians they are willing to sell their granny for a few extra votes so selling your data to their commercial friends is no cause for concern to them.

You, of course, may not be so relaxed

9 0

It looks like tech-savvy drivers will have to lead connected car data purge

nematoad
Reply Icon
Unhappy

Re: My solution.

"Don't drive anything manufactured after about 1970."

Why on earth pick 1970? My Mini Cooper S is from 1998 and does not have any "connectivity" so why not use a slightly newer car? Having a car as old as you suggest brings its own problems, parts, future regulation and general reliability to name just a few. God knows my Mini gives me enough problems and it's 28 years newer than your choice.

On a separate note there is one question that has been nagging me. Why all the emphasis on "connected cars"? As a believer in the old Unix adage "Do one thing and do it well", what's the point of having something in a motor vehicle offering so many threat vectors. Surely a car is a means of getting from A to B so why do you need to be "connected"? Is your life so busy and you so important that you need to be available at all times? Speaking for myself the answer is no and no. Indeed I view driving as a chance to remove myself from the demands of others and get on with the task in hand i.e. driving. That in itself is demanding enough without being infotained*.

* The idiot who coined this little beauty should join the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation up against the wall.

26 0

Spies still super upset they can't get at your encrypted comms data

nematoad
Reply Icon
FAIL

Re: governments can always legislate

"No amount of legalese will ever change the laws of mathematics..."

Yes, didn't some Australian politician say that the laws of physics had to bow to the laws of Australia? I thought that he was a bit deranged but it looks like the contagion is spreading.

30 0

Give yourselves a pat on the back, top million websites, half of you now use HTTPS

nematoad
Happy

I'm not surprised.

I note with some amusement that the Daily Mail is one of the guilty parties.

That's probably because the editor and minions feel that HTTPS is a foreign plot to control the voice of the people and by not succumbing they have "Taken back control".

12 0

IPv6: It's only NAT-ural that network nerds are dragging their feet...

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Glorified proxy

"...offer services that either require ipv6, or work better with it."

I take your point, but when does such a decision morph from a carrot to a stick?

Much like MS denying the latest and greatest to anyone not running Windows 10 I feel that this is a very tricky line to walk, and beating someone over the head just because you want to "move on" risks alienating the very people you need to have a business.

19 0

Uptight robots that suddenly beg to stay alive are less likely to be switched off by humans

nematoad
Reply Icon
Unhappy

" If I don't comply they said they will install Windows 10 on me?"

Indeed a cruel and unusual punishment.

18 0

Now that's a dodgy Giza: Eggheads claim Great Pyramid can focus electromagnetic waves

nematoad
Reply Icon

Re: Something wrong

No, that's the Great Pyramid alright.

The one with some of the casing left at the top is Khafre's. It's built higher up on the plateau so looks bigger but Khufu's is both taller and wider.

2 0

Page: