* Posts by MrT

1359 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Oct 2007

Email pioneer Raymond Tomlinson dies aged 74

MrT

RIP...

Attached: one soul. Store and forward to the cloud...

AMD to fix slippery hypervisor-busting bug in its CPU microcode

MrT

"Next week: what an 'array' is..."

... it's what comes after "'ip! 'ip!", ain't it? Gawd blessya, sah!

Electrified bird bum bomb shuts down US nuclear power plant

MrT

Re: Oneupmanship...

... size matters. Were any feathers found around the area? At least, that survived the outage...

Raspberry Pi 3: Four days old and already flying

MrT

Re: Great if we can ever actually buy one

According to this article in MagPi #43, the RasPi Foundation is aiming for a steady 50k units per month for Pi Zero very soon...

The hen's teeth status is explained thus:

But, given the tradition for new Pi models to sell out at launch, why is it taking so long to ramp up production on the Zero? The answer lies in the board’s unique position, Eben reveals. “This isn’t quite the same as the other Pis, because the other Pis are made by RS and Farnell. We make these Pis, so you’re actually looking at a small company trying to scale.”

Well, that and eBay scalpers clearing the newsagents of MagPi #40. Subscribe to the treeware version and that issue is still available with the Pi Zero as a covermount .

Beep, beep – it's our 2016 buzzword detector. We see you, 'complexity'

MrT

Periphrasis...

... seems to fit the bill describing these things, but TBH they always end up sounding antiphrastic. Sorry for causing anyone any pericabobulations by using real words without creating a new definition paradigm first.

I always remember the Dilbert cartoon where he sets the target "To leverage greater synergies across technology platforms". I used that once in one of my annual reviews and it nearly made it through before someone up the line spotted that it was bollocks. Still, he saw the funny side, as he tossed the review sheet back at me.

Dead Steve Jobs owed $174 by San Francisco parking ticket wardens

MrT

And if you owed them...

... would they leave it as long?

And why the outdated way of refunding? It's almost as if they have "Make it difficult" as a mantra and even at point of refund they are desperately trying to hang on to what's not theirs for a few weeks longer.

Surprise! British phone wins Best Product at Mobile World Congress

MrT

Re: Back on track...

The spec on the linked site says 32GB ROM & 3GB RAM...

"Cat S60 key features:

Strengthened Die Cast Frame

Drop proof to 1.8m, MIL Spec 810G

Super bright display (typical 540 nits), Gorilla Glass 4

4.7” HD capacitive multi-touch with auto wet finger & glove support

Optimised battery performance (3800mAh)

High quality audio experience (>105dB)

Underwater 13MP main camera with dual flash, 5MP front-facing camera

4G LTE

Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor

32GB ROM, 3GB RAM

Android™ Marshmallow"

Also immersion to 5m for up to an hour. It sounds like a pretty well spec'd handset.

Bleeping Computer sued by Enigma Software over moderator's forum post

MrT

CastleCops...

... sounds like Bleeping Computers has stepped into the gap left when CastleCops shut down. After helping beta test stuff like TrojanHunter and Zone Alarm, I used to be Staff Editor over there and met/worked with many dedicated and knowledgeable people. I lost contact with a lot since then, but some will have been like me, hanging up the gloves as family and job situations changed, (as happened with Paul and Robyn Laudanski). Others went to carry on the fight at places like DSLReports - everyone has their favourite place, and all need supporting so that there are many places to go for advice. The ones that attract most attention from the forces of darkness tend to be the ones doing most to fight back - I remember one particularly nasty attempt to knock CastleCops off the web, but it was more or less under constant negative attention. It's not helpful to have to deal with it all, although at least it shows the site is effective - like a badge of honour.

Ok, back to now... ;-) </reminisce>

Yahoo! is! up! for! sale! – so! how! much! will! you! bid!?

MrT

BaaS...

Press release to all media outlets:

"Sean the Sheep wishes to distance himself from any and all association with this concept. He is in no way, now or ever, connected with Yahoo or its subsidiaries, even if he occasionally causes exclamation marks to be used."

Europe's ExoMars mission enjoys orchestral fanfare

MrT

Re: Buttered cat

I read that line and was reminded of the bomb-proofed pickup that Rocket City Rednecks fitted out. The crushable layer was basically a layer of beer cans...

Sir Clive Sinclair in tech tin-rattle triumph

MrT

Re: 1000 installed

Can't play The Hobbit, or any other text-based game that needs a keyboard for commands. Still, there's always emulators like Marvin and the World of Spectrum archive to wade through for that sort of thing ;-)

Pilot posts detailed MS Flight Sim video of how to land Boeing 737

MrT

Or at least know where the AP1 button is to switch it back on again if you do get it wrong...

MrT

Re: Good Luck....

A330 - got it here... that was indeed if ATC send you to a "remote runway on a disused airbase where you have no choice but to land the aeroplane manually" instead of giving you vectors to an ILS-equipped airport that will also have all those other nice things like emergency response vehicles... it's a good read...

When the plane is finally down on the runnway and has stopped rolling, "Apply the parking brake, shut down the engines by lifting and twisting the knobs marked ENG1 and ENG2, press the PA button and say 'Cabin crew, doors to manual.' If you happen to have landed at Barcelona it is permisible to say 'Cabin crews, doors to Manuel.' ... Now report to the control tower for a cup of tea and a truly enormous medal."

Firemen free chap's todger from four-ring chokehold

MrT

Re: Seems unnecessary

Austin's solution...?

Ducks, Lord of the Rings, movies and maths: The GCHQ Xmas puzzle solutions revealed

MrT

'Operations Log 1970:452/18...

Subject H is in the bath singing to the bugged rubber duck:

"Rubber Duckie, joy of joys,

When I squeeze you, you make noise!

Rubber Duckie, you're my very best friend, it's true!"

Meaning unknown - leak suspected. Recommend replacement of subject with in situ clone due to possible infiltration of red cypher. Replacement programme currently scheduled to begin early 1993. Continue monitoring until then. Mission abort phrase confirmed as Rainbow Connection

Entry ends.'

Random ideas sought to improve cryptography

MrT
MrT

Truly random numbers...

...are very hard to find, outside of the machines used to generate government statistics.

If such a machine is a virtual impossibility, it must have finite improbability, but before trying work out the details, I'm going to need a fresh cup of really hot tea. Anyone got a spare atomic vector plotter...?

Reg readers battle to claim 'my silicon's older than yours' crown

MrT

ZX81...

... I still have an unbuilt kit up in the attic, next to a BBC Master 128 and Sinclair QL, plus a couple of Psion 5's (UK original and US 5mx). The only home computer I sold on was my Spectrum, to fund the QL. Rooting about up there a few weeks ago turned up a pristine box of 5.25" disks, still shrink-wrapped (BT-branded, 90's piper logo). Aquisitional as ever - I can feel the need for a proper shed, with tool boards on the walls, power, heat, and somewhere for the home brew looming large some time soon...

MrT

Re: "The WANG that would not die"

Shame Wang's logo wasn't a blue diamond with the "infinity" symbol in it...

Land Rover Defender dies: Production finally halted by EU rules

MrT

"One Life. Live It."

I preferred "You drive fast, I'll drive anywhere".

I tried searching for revolver linkages for a Series II at work once - the filters were not that clever back then and it was blocked as 'firearms'. Still, the same setup blocked the HMRC website as 'offensive', so it wasn't always wrong...

MrT

At least...

...they had the good taste to make the last example one of the Heritage models, rather than the £60-odd-k Chelsea'd up version.

Do they have the oldest (development chassis #2, IIRC) in their museum? Or at least HUE 166. This'll look nice parked next to it.

Boffins celebrate 30th anniversary of first deep examination of Uranus

MrT

Spitting Image...

... special news report from around the time of the flyby...

Four Boys' Own style World War Two heroes to fire your imagination

MrT

Major Robert Cain VC

... VC won at Arnhem in 1944. Finest VC awarded, according to General Sir Peter de la Billière.

Put your private parts on display if you want to keep earning a living

MrT

Re: Sorted @Franco

Just copy the headline thumbnail image URL and remove the crop and resize bits for less eyestrain ;-)

MrT

Re: The BrownCloud...

... early adopters are already out there in force, (just not too much lest they end up having laundry-related problems).

Server retired after 18 years and ten months – beat that, readers!

MrT
Alert

Can we please retag this article...

... to something like "cats", "boring financial forecast", "Quick! Someone check Morgan Freeman's pulse!" or maybe something more fruity that will fail to pass through our interweb filters at work? My network team is asking for new servers and I fear the beancounters may find it as an excuse to keep our current ones another 12 years... ;-)

If you want a USB thumb drive wiped, try asking an arts student for help

MrT

Re: Rambling free style

Buy a cheap USB2 memory stick, put a copy of Highlander on it and before long all of your files have mysteriously moved onto it, even ones you never knew you had. And it's now a USB3 memory stick.

MrT

Re: Rambling free style

Highlander as well... it's a kind of magic

MrT

Re: Encrypted drives

Definitely agree. We use FIPS 140-2 USB memory sticks at work - pricey enough, but I had to order a few even more expensive ones that dual-booted to both Mac and Windows for staff with Apple kit. The software is a bit better (they've got an admin password, for example, whereas the cheaper ones don't). However, when someone turned up with a Chromebook... yeah, having a standard would help a lot.

MrT

Re: Rambling free style

When you threw yourself at the floor, I don't suppose you were ever distracted enough to miss...?

iOS 9 kludged our iPhones, now give us money, claims new lawsuit

MrT

Re: The 4S is not hobbled with iOS 9

Chuffin made me log onto the full-fat web site to find out the icon you'd used :-D (they don't show on m.register and can't be chosen on posts either)

Yeah, hands up, doesn't sound the most knowledgeable thing to say, but before iOS9 none of the eye candy bothered the iPad too much. It's mostly the kids device so the bubbles are probably back already.

FWIW I've also disabled multi-fingered gestures as well... ;-)

MrT

Re: The 4S is not hobbled with iOS 9

Thanks for posting those. The last two tips work well on iPad Mini v1 - just applied the last one here, to remove the sometimes very lethargic keyboard response in Safari. The reduce motion tip makes the screen rotation more brisk, but at least here I didn't notice much difference from the first tip (just the dock and folder backgrounds going solid grey). I've also set the background image to a static one instead of the animated bubbles... The overall effect is noticeably improved.

The Register's entirely serious New Year's resolutions for 2016

MrT

"The Reg started out as the Private Eye of IT..."

A knowledgeable, scandle-busting starter of news stories? Just don't morph into 'Computing' with red pixels in place of blue, or start claiming that two-day old blog scrapes are breaking exclusives...

Flare-well, 2015 – solar storm to light up skies on New Year's Eve

MrT

Re: Never mind the US

The California-Oregon border is at exactly 42°00'N. Parts of Canada are nearly as far south (my sister lives in Windsor, Ontario, which is listed at 42°18'N latitude). UK is between roughly 8°-19° further north - the mainland spans about 8°.

MrT

"And I have seen the North Star...

Shining in the freight yard"

But only if the freight yard lights were off...

Leave the City might be better advice - probably not a great view stood at ground level in the middle of Seattle.

No, Kim Kardashian's plump posterior's pixels did not break the App Store – just this El Reg man's mind

MrT

20 minutes into the future...

Some great lines, forward-thinking pre-WWW stuff from 30yrs ago:

Max: "And then there's politicians. It's easy to tell when a politician is lying: their lips move"

Bryce: "You're looking at the future, Mr Grossman: people translated as data."

The ball's in your court, Bezos: Falcon 9 lands after launching satellites

MrT

Re: @Elon Musk

Going under Bridges and over Bridges would explain many things...

Or is Elon finally admitting that SpaceX use hobbits to pilot the first stage...?

Brit 'naut Tim Peake tucks into space bacon sarnie

MrT

Re: Probably Post Orbital Bevvy Neckfiller

Nice idea - a microgravity microbrewery... The orbital pub crawl between there and the orbital vodka distillery would be a bit samey after a while. Might be a long wait for the kebab van to arrive halfway back to the bunkhouse though.

Spanish village mounts Playmobil extravaganza

MrT

Re: Were I of the tinfoil hat persuasion...

If that's Elvis, where's his chip shop? There's also a shocking lack of unicorns at the nativity scene...

NZ unfurls proposed new flag

MrT

Re: Quite nice - cadge a lift

Hang on - does that mean that all mothballed battleships are not kept fully armed and fuelled up, staffed by elderly ex-sailors, ready to go at a moment's notice? I feel somewhat misled by a documentary film reel I recently saw, presented by notable historians such as Dr 'Weps' Rhianna and someone called Sam...

Volkswagen blames emissions cheating on 'chain of errors'

MrT

Re: Though one might reasonably expect

Or fit the Adblue tank with a float device like the fuel tank. If that's too bulky then an optical system such as is used in printer ink tanks to warn 'low' and 'empty'.

Doctor Who: Oh, look! There's a restaurant at the end of the universe in Hell Bent

MrT

Re: Who moved my cheese

There wasn't really a specific reference to it, but a very strong hint when Me was pressing the Doctor on the whole hybrid thing and why he spent most of his time fussing over Earth.

The orphanage in the Gallifrey badlands has featured a few times in the current post-movie revival. Here's hoping the popular sci-fi circle isn't squared and they have an episode where the Doctor goes back to baby-boom America to write a book on childcare...

Taxi for NASA! SpaceX to fly astronauts to space station

MrT

Previous systems...

"no shuttles exploded prior to the first manned missions."

Apart from very early airborne excursions on the back of the carrier 747 aircraft, no shuttle flew without a crew - the 5 ALT unpowered glides by Enterprise and the first 4 STS orbital launches were the test flights.

Who's running dozens of top-secret unpatched databases? The Dept of Homeland Security

MrT

Ah, so that's how DHS was reaching its green targets...

French Playmobil heist: El Reg denies involvement

MrT

Re: No idea, guvnor

The Decepticons did it, disguised as Optimus Prime...

Imagination never failed on the previous re-enactments ;-)

Now we know why Philae phouled up comet landing

MrT

Kiss From a Rosetta...

"People Get Ready, at the moment I Fly Like an Eagle around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, listening for Philae, hoping It's Alright. Crazy? Soon, though, A Change is Gonna Come, and instead of Wishing on a Star I'll be setting course for 67P to Lean On Me. Don't Cry, just offer up a Prayer for the Dying as I get ready for the comet's Touch..."

Wrong Seal...?

Let's get to the bottom of in-app purchases that go titsup

MrT

Re: Sacrebleu

Reminds me of Alan Partridge interviewing Michel Lambert, France's second-best racing driver...

Music lovers move to block Phil Collins' rebirth

MrT

It's a land of confusion...

...even in the invisible touch of space Scott Kelly seems to be turning into a Phil lookie-likee.

Samsung S6 Edge has 11 nasties, says Google Project Zero team

MrT

Davy Crockett's handset...

"Teams battled to attack three main attack surfaces of the Samsung S6 Edge"

The left screen, the right screen and the wild front screen...?