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* Posts by Mage

9270 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007

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Patience you must have, says Voda: Biz in talks with Liberty Global for grabbing Euro assets

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Re: Does the uk market not count towards the overlap?

Maybe Ireland as most Cable TV/Broadband is owned by UPC (as with UK they rent the Virgin name), but Vodafone has some fibre and ex-BT assets (formerly from eSat) and a tie-up with the ESB called Siro, but has pulled out of NBS. Formerly Vodafone was mobile only.

Isn't UPC (known as Virgin Media) only cable in UK and Vodafone only mobile in UK.

It's hard to know what the pair of them are up to. A world-wide merger would make most sense? There may be egos involved.

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No Windows 10, no Office 2019, says Microsoft

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Re: If I didn't do that in Word

LibreOffice has a choice of MS Word formats to save in. They all work with all the people and websites I use. I Save As: Word 97 - 2003 (doc) most commonly as that (even for Word to Word users) is the most reliable. Internally I use the ODT format.

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Re: WINE is currently on my most hated list of Linux software

You CAN have multiple versions of WINE. Though I find "Play on Linux" which does this, a little confusing.

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I have Win 10

On 32 bit on a tablet with keyboard dock/hinge cover. Also a desktop PC. So I can shudder when Linux or Win7 really annoys me.

Seriously poor compared with XP and Win7 and Linux Mint with Mate. I've also found that since 2003 the versions of MS Office have got worse. It's worth figuring out how to do styles properly in LibreOffice Writer and graphs in LibreOffice Calc. Also disable Java and change all the defaults. Like you ought to do on any package (in MS Office I disable Macros and VBA, both evil).

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Windows Defender will strap pushy scareware to its ass-kicker machine

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Re: NoScript

Used to use it. Now using uMatrix.

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Paris Hilton

Re: It

It's fantasy. How can MS enforce this? Only possible on their app store. No way can Defender tell the difference between crapware and stuff people want.

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Forget cyber crims, it's time to start worrying about GPS jammers – UK.gov report

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Re: Didn't we have such a system?

There are two issues:

1) Navigation.

2) Systems using GNSS / GPS etc merely as an accurate clock. They are a bigger issue.

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Re: ... this is not true by looking at battery drain?

Some or many phones, off might be really off. Often the screen etc uses a separate CPU to the RF part.

I'd not make assumptions if I was doing anything clandestine. Also someone can clone your phone to a modified one with additional tracking & monitoring.

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Re: ... this is not true by looking at battery drain?

No you can't easily, as the handshake is of short duration and not often.

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Boffin

Re: No 2G phone I have ever owned does that.

Unless you remove the battery, the masts track you even on 2G. So that when you are called the network can use the nearest masts.

If you are in range of several, the best (depends on sector loading and signal quality) connects. The handset does "ranging" too so as to use minimum TX power. The operator can use three masts to quite accurately locate you. Even with one, the operator knows approximate direction (sectorised masts increase capacity) and distance (the ranging handshake).

Even if a totally dumb 2G / GSM phone. An "agency" may or may not need a warrant to get the information.

Then also there are MIM attacks, a working "fake" mobile mast (anyone can do this now) and it pretends to be your handset to real mast.

Mostly neither GSM nor 3G uses the better encryptions they could use. I've no idea how good the "best" GSM and 3G is.

There is no native voice on 4G, it's high overhead VOIP, so often operator uses 2G/3G for voice. More efficient, better capacity & range. Even if YOU only use 4G the handset may still be doing 2G GSM and/or 3G handshakes with mast.

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Cost saving

To save money, at least the following use GPS simply as a cheap clock:

Mobile Masts (all kinds).

DAB SFN

DTT SFN

There are others I've forgotten.

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Are you taking the peacock? United Airlines deny flight to 'emotional support' bird

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Re: Poor choice

Like tortured cats. Not pleasant to have on your roof at 2AM.

The pea "hen" lays decent eggs, but is rather protective of them.

Think swans, but really really noisy, egotistical and stupid.

Guinea fowl are dumb too.

Rooks may not be pretty, but very very much smarter.

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FYI: That Hawaii missile alert was no UI blunder. Someone really thought the islands were toast

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Re: Shelters

Loads in Switzerland and Israel, possibly for different threats.

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Re: Hello fellow USian

Fanny and Faggot have unfortunate quite different USA and English meanings. As well as throwing them on the fire, I've eaten faggots in Evesham.

It's the fault of Puritans?

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1,900 rotten apps bounced out of Google Play every day in 2017

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Coat

pornography apps?

What are they needed for? Same phone has Internet, web browser, photo app and video app.

Why would users want the App developer and Google to know they are using it?

Though maybe some are "trojans", "honey pots" and later the user will get blackmailed?

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Facepalm

Bounced out?

Why are they accepted?

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Suspicion of villainy leads Facebook to ban cryptocoin ads

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Re: Not just RTE

But also BBC.

Generally the Medja are obsessive about so called Social Media and it's a disgrace that BBC & RTE promote Facebook and Twitter ON AIR!

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Pirate

Must be bad.

Facebook only exists to make Zuk money from adverts.

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F-35 flight tests are being delayed by onboard software snafus

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can’t talk to its guided air-to-ground bombs properly?

Didn't help the guys on Dark Star to talk to the smart bomb.

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PC not dead, Apple single-handedly propping up mobe market, says Gartner

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Re: Usable business PCs

Except in 2003, the 4:3 screens were 1200 lines high. Serious money to get more than 1080 lines now on a laptop or monitor and it's heavier as you need about 17" diagonal for 16:9.

Also desktop monitors that could rotate 90 deg was a thing over 10 years ago. Not "wide" enough if 9:16

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Firefox to emit ‘occasional sponsored story’ in ads test

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Happy

Re: Waterfox

I may try it

Waterfox Downloads

Windows macOS Linux Android

No 32bit though. I have one Linux Netbook 32bit and a W10 Tablet that is 32bit only (Debian can't cope with screen rotation without an extra script and Mint needs 32bit EFI files from Debian, standard Mint is 64 bit EFI only, though legacy BIOS install is 32bit or 64bit). Mad Tablet firmware.

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Re: Bye Bye

I'm on 52 ESR while I figure what to do about all our stuff.

Mozilla lost the plot even before that, as it needs User Agent Switcher, Classic Theme Restorer and uMatrix. Stuff what should be in it. Also needs loads of settings (inc About:Config) changed.

They are MENTAL!

Also BUGS!

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Mage Silver badge
Mushroom

Idiots!

MORONS!

FIX THE DAMN BUGS ALREADY.

Put back a GUI THAT SIMPLY USES THE DESKTOP THEME.

STOP ADDING STUPID STUFF NO-ONE WANTS!

Stop copying Google.

NO MODERN DESIGN!

Or soon no-one will use Firefox.

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Perv raided college girls' online accounts for nude snaps – by cracking their security questions

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Re: password manager, but they are more likely to use pen and paper

Well, only the non-financial passwords should be in the password manager, which should NEVER be on the cloud.

ALL passwords should be in an indexed address notebook, with user name, website, what it's for, email used, security questions / PIN etc if applicable, password. And NEVER EVER kept in same jacket / handbag as phone if it is used for main internet (DON'T use it for anything important and then you don't need password book for it.) Never keep with Laptop/Tablet.

Then too, if you get knocked down, struck by lightning, heart attack, assassinated etc, the survivors can access your computer/laptop/phone and the internet accounts etc.

If you have a really important domain, consider creating a trust to manage it and hosting. Will should give Executor location of password book, main pass for main gadget and its browser password manager etc.

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Re: Everytime I see "Mother's maiden name" on the list of security question...

a) Most big companies are rubbish at security

b) Why expect ordinary people to be better? In about 30 years of PCs in schools, almost nothing is taught about creating and managing passwords. Telling people to have up to date AV software is not security training.

c) "… obtaining private sexually explicit photos, which people apparently store in their email accounts without much thought about security. It's not immediately clear why the large number of such images on the internet did not suffice*." Why do people take sexually explicit photos (of themselves)? They did it in film days too. Yes, labs made extra prints. Why then store them on so called "Cloud"?

d) Well, no matter about the level of stupid of a-c above, he does deserve suitable punishment.

[* For the miscreant breaking in or the people taking and storing the photos?]

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RIP Ursula K Le Guin: The wizard of Earthsea

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Re: part inspired Iain M Banks' Culture novels

May have, but in contrast his are self-indulgent transhumanisn fantasy and "men inventing gods" AI trope rather than Ursula's thoughtful SF & F. Yes, she wrote BOTH kinds of books and bravely didn't hide behind initials or ambiguous names as many Women writers feel they had to.

A giant of 20th C. SF *AND* Fantasy, who did other writing to. I must read her book on writing!

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Re: A good read?!

She was anti-discrimination and anti-bigotry, rather than "traditional" Feminist or anti-racist. A very clever thoughtful woman.

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Re: A good read?!

But what ever you do, don't watch the Earthsea video miniseries. It made her VERY cross.

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Schrems can't throw collective sueball at Facebook but individual action OK

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Class Action

Historically very hard to do outside USA.

Read King of Torts. It has actually led to nonsense in USA.

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Unlocked: The hidden love note on the grave of America's first crypto power-couple

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Awwww...

Lovely.

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Talk about a positive mental pl-attitude: WD Ultrastars shed disks without hit to capacity

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Boffin

Re: Speeds?

Higher density per track means higher speed per bit at same RPM. Just as outer edge is "faster" than inner edge (though same RPM).

The SATA speed is only relevant (maybe) when doing Cache hit RAM I/O.

Number of tracks has no effect.

So a 6T drive at same RPM and same number of platters/ tracks as 3T drive could in theoryl be twice as fast at same position on drive. Outer edge maybe about twice speed of inner edge, not sure. It's a very long time since HDD had real fixed physical sectors, where no advantage was taken of higher linear speed as you move head outwards.

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Happy

6TB in air

I'd worry too how long Helium STAYS in drive. Air sounds good.

I wonder what the shelf life of the data is when powered down?

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.UK overseer Nominet abandons its own charitable foundation – and why this matters

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Re: Who owns .uk?

Probably ICANN, he mutters darkly. By ISO it ought to have been GBR, or GB. Like GB Pounds, GB car number plates etc. ISO Codes: "UK Reserved on request of the United Kingdom lest UK be used for any other country," Though the EU uses UK, the UK uses GB for most things (maybe they want rid of N.I.?)

Ukraine is UA

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Pirate

Re: Not unusual, unfortunately

Yes, there is ICANN.

Enabling spam by making WhoIs public (a warrant should be needed)

Effectively deleting paid up valid domains without telling Registrants (or allegedly Registrars/Resellers).

Also:

When is a Registrar just a commercial reseller of domains managed by other Registrars.

Exactly why do ICANN exist? Should be replaced by ITU.

Exactly why do Registrars exist? Should be done by National Comms regulator.

Exactly why is there more than a setup charge. What is the annual fee for? (Compare Ham Radio Licences in some countries where there is only an initial charge, because it's a database and costs nearly nothing per person annually after record creation).

ICANN and Registrars are a money making unregulated *Scam*!

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Why did I buy a gadget I know I'll never use?

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Re: Misty-eyed: RAM

I've got every sort, including 1K DIL chips and ones for a Pentium Pro.

They don't take much space. Hence grow,

Baffled by variety of ones for laptops.

Discovered the CMOS / RTCC modules all dead when fixing up an old P4. However easy to hack open battery connections and add a CR2032 socket. The Compaq lunch box wouldn't even start video without replacing it.

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Re: Bags full of the stuff

If you don't unpack something within a year of moving, it needs to leave your house. To kids (ours don't want the toys for their kids), charity shop, coffee shop library, recycling or bin.

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Coffee/keyboard

Attic

I must clear out the upgraded PCW256 (512K RAM, 720K DS SD floppy added). Loads of ISA cards, old motherboards, cables, genuine IBM AT stuffed with VGA card and maybe three AST RAM cards and IDE HDD. Also must chuck the MFM drives, various SCSI drives, ZIP and Bernoulli drives and boxes of cables.

A half dozen boxes of old PCBs from test gear, radios etc in workshop.

Dabbsey has been secretly visiting my home office and kitchen. We now have the never used multi-chopper in a box ready to junk.

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Apple iPhone X: Two weeks in the life of an anxious user

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Display

Yes it's got a bezel.

It's also stupid with the notch and curved corners. Pure style ignoring function. It took TV and monitor screen makers nearly 60 years to be able to have the rectangular image go close to the edge of the actual display (Plasma and Mono LCD first).

Now Apple purely for style (watching too much Holywood SF) spoils the display. We are not Cardassians (I never understood why they had those weird displays on DS9).

The price is mental. BT ear is lower quality tech than universal compatible analogue 3.5mm jack. It adds an extra pair of codecs and then lower quality analogue from digital than is possible inside the phone. It's saving 30c and allowing sale of expensive buds that have to be charged.

The increasing trend to remove SD card slots and smaller SIMs is stupid. My watch takes a micro SD and a larger SIM.

It's a phone designed purely on appearance rather than function.

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Mushroom

it’s for 18 months, maybe two years,

STOP right there. Almost every company, especially ONLINE (even when European based sales) are trying to claim you have ONE year. They offer to sell extended warranties.

SOGA, all of EU, inc UK and many other countries by law, you have TWO years MINIMUM.

Batteries need to be user or cheaply locally replaceable as they are essentially a consumable and if heavily cycled may not last two years. There needs to be a MINIMUM duration specified for 50% capacity. That's a lack in current consumer law.

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

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Re: "Roll on the next general election, and get these shower of bastards away from the NHS."

And Yes, Minister DELIBERATELY didn't have any scenes in either House.

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Crapita

They only take notice of IT they can get commission on?

How many managers in Crapita know ANYTHING about ANY alternatives to leading proprietary and expensive lock in annual licensing?

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VTech fondleslabs for kids 'still vulnerable' despite sanctions

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Fine?

A modest cost of doing business, peanuts.

10% of turnover or $20,000 per affected person would be a fine.

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National Audit Office report blasts UK.gov's 'muddled' STEM strategy

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Pirate

Re: a team with "engineering skills"

But not connected with any Silicon Valley or similar operation. We don't want mostly white male privileged sociopaths only interested in exploiting people influencing any decisions.

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Also

Making Polytechnics into copies of Universities and dumbing down degrees hasn't helped. We do need pure academic training, but also professionally properly done other STEM training.

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Headmaster

STEM

Problem is lack of suitably trained teachers and suitable curriculum. I remember when Apple II, Research Machine 380 and BBC Micro went into schools. The teachers should have got one and training first. There should have been a clear plan.

There is too much emphasis on MS Office and not enough on lab based wider science, simply using Pi or tablet or whatever as a tool for STEM, not an end in itself.

Teachers, labs, and last of all throwing gadgets and IT at it!

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Flying on its own, Thunderbird seeks input on new look

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Re: HTML mode doesn't have a tree view (for folders)

Should be IRRELEVANT. Total madness to do other than the opened email content using a browser engine, sandboxed, so HTML can be rendered. Such a thing can also manage the sadly rare text email. The rest of the application (or ANY application) should NEVER EVER use browser technology.

Only Web pages and HTML documents should use browser code which should be sandboxed from the rest of the application. Because you know remote content, HTML and javascript ...

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Boffin

Re: XUL, HTML etc

The ONLY part of the application that should be remotely related to browser tech, is actually the email contents window. NOTHING ELSE AT ALL. Everything else should use standard DESKTOP cross platform GUI components.

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Facepalm

GUI Design?

The application should interrogate the OS and use its current theme. GUI design should be the most routine and basic part, a standard framework nearly.

What's important is that it actually works and the GUI isn't subverted. Stuff is where it is in any application. Menus, check boxes, selection, buttons etc work as expected.

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Facebook, Schrems case cost Irish data watchdog €2m – reports

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Re: “In essence, if you don’t have a couple of million, you’re out of luck.”

Apple moved from Ireland to Jersey.

Eircom is branded Eir, but has moved "HQ" to Jersey.

There are good laws in Ireland, but rubbish to non-existent enforcement. The problem is ultimately not in Ireland but in USA (lets Corporations do what they like to public) and UK (City of London one of biggest Money Launderers and UK territories outside GB & NI are among the most popular Tax or Gambling company havens. IOM, Channel Is. Gibraltar, Bahamas and others that part of the world.)

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Wave Tata, Capita: You've lost mega-contract to rival outsourcer

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Flame

Idiots

If your business is about managing information (which Pensions, Insurance, Banking, Morgages etc is), then you have nothing to outsource. Except maybe the high street branches. You COULD outsource those to petrol stations, post-offices, convenience stores. Except the beancounters have no vision, the business perishes because the managing the information IS the core business and expertise.

Anyone doing it cheaper is lying about the quality and/or exploiting / underpaying their workers.

Same about Cloud. Put your online retail on it (elastic, good internet speed etc) but do the databases and backoffice on your OWN iron with own experts and own backup. See book "No Silver Lining" by Ray McCarthy.

Things are going to get worse. I spoke to an IT manager in Capita. "Oh we just do management, we don't have to know anything about actual IT. Never heard of Linux or MySQL or Wordpress or LibreOffice."

It's all going to crash and burn!

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