* Posts by Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

2452 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Sep 2007

Delayed, over-budget smart meters will be helpful – when Blighty enters 'Star Trek phase'

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Eh?

So we have... "People are not obliged to have a smart meter installed and can opt to turn them down."

But then... "Onus will be on energy suppliers to ensure consumers adopt the new technology."

So if the energy companies are made to ensure that customers adopt the technologies, how are they going to do that if I am under no obligation to have one?

I mean, they can try, but with me, they will fail.

Facebook ends appeal against ICO micro-fine: Admit liability? Never. But you can have £500k

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Yeah, maybe...

£500k is not a lot in the great scheme of things. But the reputational damage this has done to FB is immense. They, and their like such as Google et al are all now under major scrutiny from all sides. I think you'll agree that this is a sea change in attitude compared to where we were 5 years ago when we on these hallowed forums could already see the inherent issues forming - but that these companies were seeing themselves as untouchable.

I have many non-IT industry friends who in the past have been ardent users of FB and cynical of my refusenik approach to social media overall; who themselves are now abandoning it in droves now that they fully understand the issues and risks that have been highlighted by this ongoing story.

'Earworn Wearables' will save the day (wireless earbuds, but cool name for your D&D halfling)

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Meanwhile, my old fashioned wired headphones...

The other advantage of your old fashioned wired headphones it that you probably don't look like an utter twat whilst wearing them... probably. I still use wired headphones because for me it's all about the sound reproduction rather than the aesthetic.

Is HONK nothing sacred HONK? It's 2019 and an evil save file can pwn much-loved HONK Untitled Goose Game

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Honkity honk!!!

Better a honky goose than generic Angry or Flappy birds.

UK ads watchdog slaps Amazon for UX dark arts after folk bought Prime subs they didn't want

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Amazon 'Black Friday Deals'

Where do you buy your bent nails from then? Do you use them for doing DIY around corners?

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: It is not just Amazon

Re the insurance issue, you are looking at it wrong. Their authorisation to take your money from you automatically is an "approved industry process" buried on page 14 of the terms and conditions in a white four point font. Did you not read it?

It's a customer benefit you see. Designed to ensure that you as a loyal customer (A) do not drive without insurance - because you can't be trusted, (B) so that you are forced to waste time calling them on a premium rate number so that they can try to charge you more than last year to renew, and (C) to charge you more than new customers rather than rewarding your loyalty.

Benefits eh?

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Yup

Yup - I've been caught by myself this several time despite being totally IT savvy. Although to be fair, I have then gone on to use their free trial to my advantage on several occasions, and it is very easy to cancel.

Q. Who's triumphantly slamming barn door shut after horse bolted at warp 9? A. NordVPN

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Just out of curiousity....

I do a lot of freelance work from home, and I've used AirVPN for the last 3 years as a SOHO solution and have had no issues with them. I have it configured as a service on my office router so everything on the network behind it benefits from it - whether it needs to or not.

They are not the biggest, fastest or "noisiest" in terms of advertising. But the fact that it was set up by a group of European journalists to protect their own communications in the face of ever intrusive surveillance tells me they are in it for the right reasons.

Whatever you do though, don't use or sign up to a free VPN service - they have to make their money somehow, so have a guess how they do it? Also, I'd advise against using any browsers that claim to have a built in VPN such as Opera - as they are not a true VPNs as I understand them to be.

Best of luck.

Remember that competition for non-hoodie hacker pics? Here's their best entries

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Not a very strong lineup

Hello Alice, sorry... but it's over hun. I need to tell you that I've just met someone. He's called John. Have a nice life, Bob.

Cringe as you read Horrible Histories: UK Banking Sector, sigh as MPs finger cloudy Big 3 as future risk

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Not got much hope

I'm not going to say I totally disagree with you, but I'm also at the point where I think you are overreacting a bit. My bank has also implemented two factor authentication via SMS, as have numerous other websites I use such as Amazon etc - and as far as I can tell it works ok. All it does is send a time sensitive 8 digit code to my mobile that I need to use when I log in at a point in time. For any crim to get access to my accounts they'd also need access to my log on ID, password, and security phrases / codewords. And lets be honest, the chances of that are miniscule.

I'm not siding with the banks here, but they do have to balance security and everyday practicality for their users - so it's always a delicate balance. Security doesn't begin and end with the banks, it also requires the end user to take precautions with their credentials and devices. I think we'll all agree however that it definitely should not involve keeping PINs, account passwords and user IDs written down on a piece of paper in ones purse - as my sister used to do. She now keeps them in a password protected note on her mobile - which is only a slight improvement in my mind.

Silly sister.

Now the US DoJ has charged Apple's insider trading lawyer with, er... well, it's embarrassing

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Tying your own noose...

"Securities fraud counts carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The wire fraud counts carry a maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gain derived from or loss caused by the offense."

Yes, but because he's a rich white man no doubt it'll be a $10 fine with no requirement to admit any wrongdoing right?

We're late and we're unreliable but we won't invalidate your warranty: We're engineers!

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re : Lord Finchley

Once again Dr Jones

We see there is nothing you can posses

That I cannot take away.

- Herr Belloq

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Just sayin'...

Have you tried phoning a solar panel specialist? Seems the most obvious first place to try.

No extra bank holiday for 75th VE Day, but the pub will be open longer

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Proles!!! Sit down. Shut up.

Be more grateful for generosity of honourable and majestic government of most United of Kingdoms in its allowing for you of two extra hours drinking time on most respectful of occasions.

Chin up. 2019's been tough on IT spending – but next year will be great, Gartner says so

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

It needs to be said...

It needs to be said that as ever, Gartner have no better idea as to what next year holds any more than a fairground fortune teller. And they have hardly been accurate over the last few years anyway.

But hey, they have to get their corporate subscriptions in right?

Hell hath GNOME fury: Linux desktop org swings ax at patent troll's infringement claim

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Thanks for the link. The EFFs "stupid patent of the month" blog is now going to be on my regular reading list. Some of them are hilarious.

Luke, I am your father... which is why I must eject from JEDI decision, says US Defense Sec

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Tenuously relevant...

Almost as much of a mess as the trailer for the highly crap looking new Star Wars movie then?

UK tech freelancer numbers down for first time in 5 years since IR35 tax reforms hit public sector

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: So HMRC basically wants everyone to be employed

Kind of. What both GOV and the banks will do is what they always do, they'll just outsource to their cronies at Capita and PWC etc. who will in turn outsource to their own cheap internal teams, or the lowest SI bidder i.e. Wipro or HCL etc. etc. and then end up paying more out of the coffers in the long term dealing with the endless CR's and commercial / technical fuck ups that these companies consistently engender.

Then in a couple of years when the PAC starts to get on the Governments back about even MORE costly and delayed projects they'll all start to moan about there being a high-tech skills shortage in the UK and blame the education department, immigrants and poor people. Anyone but themselves and their short term-ist views on things.

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Simply disjointed...

So on one hand you have BEIS and the DIT screaming that we need a highly mobile and highly skilled workforce to secure the UKs future as a global leader in high technology, science and research - yet here we have HMRC trying to pin everyone down to the same ways of working as everyone else - when those ways of working are varied from business to business and job to job. It just doesn't make sense. HMRC didn't have the intelligence to enforce it back in the early 000's and I can't see this will change.

If it doesn't, then guess we'll all just be replaced by cheap labour from India which will keep the Home office and the ever agitated political right very happy.

I don't really care either way. If it is enforced then I'll just head back to mainland Europe and watch with a smile as HMRC wave bye-bye to all of the taxes that I currently pay.

Samsung on fridge cert error: Someone tried to view 'unsavoury content' in middle of John Lewis

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: What they have said about it probably gives too much away anyway

But also something relevant to the subject matter though... like two potatoes and a sausage?

Mark Hurd is dead

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

I'm split...

On the one hand I have sympathies for his family. He was after all, only human.

On the other, there is definitely a cryogenically frozen US businessman meets Thora Hird joke in here somewhere.

Deus ex hackina: It took just 10 minutes to find data-divulging demons corrupting Pope's Click to Pray eRosary app

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

419

Jesus is alive and well and living it up in Nigeria.

Microsoft Surface Pro X: Windows on Arm usable at long last – but, boy, are you gonna pay for it

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Who is going to buy it? Idiots with more money than sense, or those that put aesthetic before practicality.

So... your average hipster.

Good news – America's nuke arsenal to swap eight-inch floppy disks for solid-state drives

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Dr Falken, that certainly is a WOPR!!!

The only winning move is not to play.

Privacy pop-up exhibit shows people in The Glass Room shouldn't throw phones – though they may well want to

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Demitri Martin...

I think we should agree a no throwing of stones situation whatever the house construction.

UK culture sec hints at replacing TV licence fee, defends encryption ban proposals and her boss in Hacker House inquiry

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Yes, the key person who was involved in "the due diligence, assessment and award of any grant funding made through the CSIIF" was also occupied by something else - primarily legs and tits.

Masters of Puppet say: There's no magical one-size-fits-all answer to doing DevOpsery

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Cannot stop the Battery...

What are our thoughts on Master of Puppets then? Best thrash/speed (or whatever) album ever?

It certainly is in my view.

Welcome to the World Of Tomorrow, where fridges suffer certificate errors. Just like everything else

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Dr. Ian Malcolm : God help us, we're in the hands of engineers.

Your son won't have to endure anything. If I remember correctly, the dinosaurs will eat man and women will inherit the earth.

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

To be honest I don't think anyone has ever been arsed enough to agree an international standard for

root vegetable storage. So I think it's down to personal preference as to where you store them.

The fridge isn't the place I'd choose to store them mind, but then again, what's life without a little risk...

Imagine finding this bad boy in your shower: Brit startup pulls the sheets off Moon spider mech

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Do I have this right..?

It says in the story that it can only "scuttle 10 meters"???

I'm kind of struggling to see the point. It's almost like the aeronautical equivalent of a selfie stick.

From Libra to leave-ya: eBay, Visa, Stripe, PayPal, others flee Facebook's crypto-coin

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: The cost in kW

"If you withdrawal a twenty from the ATM and pay five in fees"

F**k me... rather than educate people on maths, the lesson should really be about how to rapidly change banks if that's what is being charged.

No ghosts but the Holy one as vicar exorcises spooky tour from UK's most haunted village

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Half a dinari for my whole life story???!!!

You've come to the wrong place if you want originality brother. So let us praise Jehovah, a fine halibut and stick-on ginger beard that you are not the arbiter of "what" gets posted onto the hallowed forums by the El Reg faithful... and I should know, because I've followed a few.

I'm pretty sure we're all more than happy with the Python and HTTG regurgitations and I'm sure we'll be posting them long into the future... and amen to that.

Former BAE Systems contractor charged with 'damaging disclosure' of UK defence secrets

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

I'm no judge, but...

Give him 2 years for the yellow shirt on its own. There is simply no rational reason to ever be out in public in one. It's almost [but not quite] as bad as : black suit, black shirt, red tie. And yes... there is one of "them" in my department. I've a good mind to raise a grievance in HRMS.

Remember the FBI's promise it wasn’t abusing the NSA’s data on US peeps? Well, guess what…

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

As ever...

As ever, I'm surprised why anyone is surprised by this. Of course they f*****g lied. Based on their previous, why would anyone believe anything these "security services" say.

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: the gang

Ok... but apart from ethics, good morals, good knowledge of the subject, enthusiasm for it, the ability to engage with and inspire students, and the skill of communicating concepts and principles... what have the Teachers ever done for us?

Wine? Viaducts? Public safety?

HP to hike upfront price of printer hardware as ink biz growth runs dry

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Gave up on HP years ago

Interestingly, I did just have to buy a new printer for SOHO use and I ended up going for one of the Epson TS8000 range. I agree the disk it came with did come with tons of crapware on it, but at least it clearly gave me the option of choosing to just install the driver.

Like you however, I deliberately didn't even look at any of HPs range of printers.

Game over: Atari VCS architect quits project, claims he hasn’t been paid for six months

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

I'm surprised...

Considering what they are trying to achieve, and the ubiquity and understanding of component design, I'm surprised that there is actually that much complex "architecture" behind this in the first place.

TalkTalk says WalkWalk if you've got a mouldy Tiscali email address, or pay £50 a year to keep it

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Plenty...

Plenty of decent free email providers out there that don't charge a bean - just use a mail redirect. I'm with GMX primarily who are ok, but I also have couple of Protonmail ones that I'm holding for future use. I'll put my sad sorry hands up and say that I also have a legacy Gmail one - but I'm slowly running that down, with the upside being that once I have I never need to log into ANY Google service ever again.

£99,999, what's your emergency? Paramedics rush to OAP's aid after shock meter reading

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: defibrillate the meter

I dunno... your house would be a whole lot warmer, and from a blast radius standpoint it wouldn't be possible to read your meter - so no bills. Granted, you might not actually have a house at that point, but I feel that would just be splitting hairs.

Cassini may be dead – but its data shows basic building blocks of life spewing from Enceladus

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Europea

We've all been told the answer to that question previous, and quite clearly too...

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE.

This won't end well. Microsoft's AI boffins unleash a bot that can generate fake comments for news articles

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

I disagree somewhat. If amanfrommars was a bot, and we were being experimented on by the good folks at El Reg, then I would have expected the quality of comment from that user to have been improved on, and to have deviated from the regular tedious drivel that hasn't changed in the 10 -12 years that I've been a regular reader and commentor.

UK ads watchdog bans Burger King Twitter jibe for condoning chucking milkshakes at politicians

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Eh?

How can this be construed as aggressive or anti-social behaviour? Lobbing a milkshake over Farage in my mind is a perfectly natural thing to want to do to such a narcissistic and self promoting asshat.

BBC said it'll pull radio streams from TuneIn to slurp more of your data but nobody noticed till Amazon put its foot in it

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: inquiring mind wants to know...

I don't think so. You only need a TV license if you want to watch any form of TV at the point it is broadcast or if you want to consume any content via the iPlayer platform.

So if you want to watch the 6pm BBC or Sky news broadcasts at 6pm (i.e. a live broadcast) then you need a license. If you want to watch the 6pm news broadcast via catchup via ANY method, then you don't need a license.

I've not required a license for 5 years now, so I can't remember if it covers "downloading BBC content" but I'd assume downloading content would not be at the point of broadcast - so I'd assume not.

Happy to be corrected.

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Honestly, I couldn't care less...

Truly. I've not paid the license fee, listened or watched anything BBC related for about 5 years now. And I don't miss it one bit. They lost their way as a "public service broadcaster" years ago when they decided they wanted to be a Netflix or similar and started wasting millions of £'s of free money in trying to "compete" in that arena, rather than providing that core public service that I was prepared to continue funding.

Since I discovered internet radio I've found so many better channels for music, news, and other things of interest that don't require any form of registration, login or such like. I get that there are many people that rely on the BBC for this sort of stuff, but as the years pass, that number will drop and drop to the point that the only possible model for the BBC will be to move to a fully commercial operation. Then they can do what they want... and I still won't care.

Margin mugs: A bank paid how much for a 2m Ethernet cable? WTF!

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Not just business

Audiophiles are a funny bunch. Apparently if you pay even slightly premium cost for all of your hi-fi equipment then you can hear things on the Dark side of the moon "soundstage" that aren't actually even there.

It must be some kind of miracle or something.

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Re: Not just business

What's even funnier is when you ask the droid trying to sell you said £40 HDMI lead as to why it is better than the stock one that comes with the device...

Tech CEO thrown in the clink for seven years for H-1B gang-master role: Crim farmed out foreign staff as cheap labor

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Makes you laugh, dunnit..?

Supposedly smart enough to come up with “the largest and most sophisticated H-1B scheme ever prosecuted" but totally dumb enough to believe a "spiritual advisor".

Burn baby burn.

Three UK slammed for 'ripping off' loyal mobile customers by £32.4m per year

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

Weasel words...

"a Three spokesperson said the current proposals were not in customers' best interests"

Lol! It's almost as though they expect us to believe that PR shit.

UK taxman wins tribunal case against BBC presenters

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

I've worked freelance for 15 years and know how it all works, so can you explain how you think "contractors are undertaxed" please? To make it easier for you why don't you simply post how much you paid in taxes last year, and then I'll post what I paid in total. I guarantee my labour generated more tax for HMRC last years than yours did.

There is a real whining streak of jealously permeating from these discussions from the permie set... and yes, I find it quite amusing.

Facebook campus death plunge: Cops say man jumped from 4th floor in apparent suicide

Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

"While the family is being notified, we have no information to share."

"While the family is being notified, we have no information to share other than with selected third party partners who may use that data to improve your overall Facebook experience by showing you targeted advertising for things you already own."