Posts by 2Nick3

Re: @ 2Nick3

"Just how much was she being paid?"

Enough for her to accept the job.

"What degree of training did she have on the capabilities (or otherwise) of the "automated driving" system?"

That's a good question, While she took the job we don't know what training was involved or what expectations were set, but watching a TV show on your phone while on the clock is probably not in the 'acceptable' column. The title is "Safety Driver," not "Safety Passenger."

If you walk into McDonalds and the person there to take your order is playing Angry Birds and is very slow to respond to you being there, how do you react? In a retail store, you come to the cashier and they are engrossed in texting and don't notice you, what goes through your mind?

I doubt you're thinking "They're doing a great job."

Re: That's not how apple store works...

"If you can ONLY get it at Walmart it's essentially just another Walmart store brand..."

There are frequently special editions of music and movies only distributed through certain stores. And PC's/laptops, for that matter.

However that is crossing into physical goods - I can't put my hand on an iPhone app, where I can touch a CD/DVD/computer. Apple holds no inventory of the app, and they can't run out.

Personally I wouldn't use an alternate Store for my i-Devices. I like the fact the apps are vetted by Apple, and I have a single location to go for updates. I know that's not for everyone, but it works for me.

Re: Training the trainer

"I was eventually allowed (I suspect encouraged) to do the final test early, take my certificate, and have the rest of the day off. Those were the days...."

Except when the test is looking for the wrong answer taught in the course. Bits and bytes are not interchangeable terms...

Re: Undecimate?

Since "decimate" now seems to mean "totally destroyed" to most people, I'm going to use "undecimate" (which Chrome wants to correct to 'decimate'...) to both be more accurate and confuse people.

Win-win!

Re: You could always hope

"...since republicans have managed to get their voters to restrict their choices voluntarily!"

I'd say both sides of the aisle have managed do to that.

Re: Surely the solution is simple

All true, but fighting something you agreed to in the T&Cs can be an uphill battle.

Once you assume these companies aren't acting in the best interest of their customers what they can try to pull off is scary.

Why wind turbines? Wouldn't you look using tidal/current flows for power generation? Making these units self-sufficient would make a lot of sense, and only needing a data connection simplifies deployments significantly.

The likely last man standing in the tape drive/library world will be IBM. They're going to be able to tolerate margins that no one else can, and they're so entrenched at customers using tape that getting someone to switch away from them would be a near-impossible battle.

Re: One evening about ten year ago...

"I dunno, I wouldn't put it past some prats to think it's okay to box in a fire engine if those cones aren't out."

Living in North Carolina I'd have to say you're on to something there - I've seen someone park blocking the doors to an ambulance, get out of their truck(1), and tell the cop who told him to move "It's a free country." (2) and proceed into the store.

1: Yes, the truck had a big confederate flag sticker on it

2. The tow truck was there promptly, and they weren't very gentile.

"A normal human driven car would still have run over the cyclist/pedestrian/lemming so I don't see how they could have caused the death."

A normal Volvo would have engaged the emergency braking feature, which was disabled by Uber. They turned off the feature that was designed to help in this exact scenario - distracted driver, low visibility, object/person moving into the path of the car.

I'm not a big supporter of all of these "take responsibility off of the driver" technologies, as they aren't common across all cars, and drivers don't adjust well when they don't have them. I've been in a rental car with a driver who, because there wasn't a light on the side mirror telling them there was someone in his blind spot, changed lanes without looking. The other driver's reaction saved us. He was used to the feature in his own car, and the rental didn't have it. Having that "don't change lanes" light created a new behavior in him, so when the light wasn't there he didn't react properly.

Re: inane perpetual ramblings about both Trump and Brexit

"When sensible people see stupidity it's their duty to point it out."

But in an article about how Win10 won't update if you have a certain model of Intel or Toshiba SSD in the machine? It's not relevant to the topic, adds nothing to the information being conveyed by the piece, and can be alienating to ~50% of the population (in this case US votes for Trump and UK votes for Brexit). And if you alienate people often enough they leave, which does impact your add revenues.

I think there needs to be a corollary to Godwin's Law (as commonly understood, at least) that bringing Trump or Brexit unnecessarily into a discussion means it is over and your position is void.

Re: skinny and bulky

If asked to run with 40 pounds of gear the Marines would look at you like "Is that all?" while the marathoners would say "No."

Heck, even if asked to carry the marathoners the 26.2 miles the Marines would just ask what you want them to do with the other half of their day (14 hour duty day, ~4mph march speed, with a couple of water breaks).

Re: I wonder

I think a lot of people would have a hard time with what a search engine actually is. They type on what they want, it comes back to them, and anything else isn't really relevant for most uses. Getting into the concept of what more is going on there isn't relevant to them.

"So long as those of us that don't like fucking up planets can find yet another planet that wont get fucked up."

Just don't set up an Interstellar Internet Interface (the III is to the galaxy as WWW is to the Earth) so FB can't get to you and your data.

Of course the latency involved would probably help - by the time FB learned your preferences they wouldn't be relevant to your distant descendants.

Re: Enemy of the people

Right now Assange carries the label 'accused rapist', and the trial he is actively avoiding would determine if the 'accused' is dropped or the whole label. The fact that his own actions are preventing that determination from being made isn't supposed to affect it. However they do paint a picture of his character that could be quite damaging to his case. If it ever happens.

Re: Last time this happened...

"There are machine screws. Not pointy."

The pointy ones are sheet metal screws, and definitely not what you would use to hold the windscreen on a airliner in place.

Re: Alexa replies : There are only evil patent lawyers

"Reminds me of a recent graduates pull request at work, I had to block the code from being merged as it had a script with a sed call that altered itself, then recursively called itself again."

Or returning the address from a malloc to the count of memory addresses you want to allocate, which always being greater than 1, will recursively continue until you run out of memory you can allocate. Which, when run under your C Professor's superuser account, with no limits on memory allocation, is not good for everyone else using that system. Which was approximately 300 other students at the time.

Not that I know from personal experience or anything...

"Then fucking stop doing it. Don’t care if it’s currently legal, it should be illegal. There is no legitimate reason to use a false number. If you’re not prepared to identify yourself with a number owned by you then you fall into the scumbag category."

If someone is calling me from a support center I'd rather have the support line show up on the CallerID than their individual extension. Playing phone tag with a support group can be hard enough, but having to do it with a specific individual is nigh on impossible.

So there are definitely cases where I see it being a benefit, but you should have to apply for a permit of some kind to do it.

Re: Engage pedant mode.....

"Water vapour, steam is an invisible gas"

Yes, but calling someone a "Water vapouring pile of poop" is not nearly as satisfying.

"IBM somehow manages to be worse... it once took one of their own staff several weeks to find out that the files his customer wanted were hidden on an FTP server somewhere in Boulder, Colorado."

Ah, good old service2.boulder.ibm.com - still up and running today!

And I'd be willing to pay 3x for one to send the other two somewhere that they would be needed.

Re: Targeted ads

"How much better to advertise breast and penis enlargement to punters of the appropriate sex - must be worth paying Facebook a few pennies to classify them, eh?"

Isn't FB big on blurring the gender line? Might not be good for business after all!

Re: MS kills UWP apps, Telephony API appears in Windows

"Microsoft will continue to be around, but it's unlikely that they will be the same level of major player in five to ten years that they are now."

Don't we hear this every 5-10 years about MS?

Re: Health Hazard?

Lee D said: "It's the anti-social aspect that matters more. And that carries over from smoking to vaping."

Perfectly stated - My rights end where yours start. Yours end where mine start. Pretty simple, right?

Smokers/vapers don't want to be told they can't continue to do so. Fine and dandy. But that also means they can't force me to smoke/vape. Which by creating a cloud outside of a door is what is happening.

Yep - new warrant issued, MS complied.

Re: I'll make you an offer

"On the topic of Left v. Right name calling, I agree, and wish it would stop - Not just in Comments, but in general (in person, in the "news", in the houses of government, etc.)."

Amen. It's very hard to find common ground with someone who is calling you an idiot.

Put in Road Rash and I'll be pre-ordering for sure!

Re: And yet Apple has a patent on rounded corners

"Love it, I assume that's why El-Reg hasn't dared to round any of the corners on the site"

But then Apple would have to acknowledge El-Reg to accuse them of infringing on the patent. At which point the universe might just implode...