Re: Real life
...yes, but at home, I can choose to mix with the cat, the wife, my mate or whoever else...In the office I 'have' to mix with - urgh - "Team Members"...
Posts by Christopher Lane
112 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jan 2008
A memo from the distant future... June 2022: The boss decides working from home isn't the new normal after all
After 30 years of searching, astroboffins finally detect the universe's 'missing matter' – using fast radio bursts
Friday 29th May 2020 05:59 GMT 
...but does it really "matter" given the state of Humanity?
How can one set of Humans conduct science like this but another fall for this --> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/28/anti_5g_usb_stick/.
Let us hope the former out number the latter else Humanity will be extinct within 100 years.
The point of containers is they aren't VMs, yet Microsoft licenses SQL Server in containers as if they were VMs
Boffins find proof that yes, Carl Sagan and Joni Mitchell were right, we really are all made up of star stuff
Look, we know it feels like everything's going off the rails right now, but think positive: The proton has a new radius
Side-splitting bulging batts, borked Wi-Fi... So, how's that Surface slab working out for you?
Wednesday 7th August 2019 10:02 GMT
Nearly Unrepairable...
...but not quite. I changed a battery on our FD's Surface Pro a few weeks ago. It wasn't all smooth sailing and did involve "creating" a Wi-Fi aerial from copper tape. What's more curious is that the Wi-Fi has better range, speed, throughput etc with my scapel-crafted bodge than the original I inadvertantly/couldn't help slashing through...go figure!
Get ready for a literal waiting list for European IPv4 addresses. And no jumping the line
2025: HELLO? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, I'M ON THE TUBE. FULL 4G NOW. NAH, IT'S CRAP
Users fail to squeak through basic computer skills test. Well, it was the '90s
Saturday 26th January 2019 09:00 GMT
Re: Not sure...
I can beat that - two days ago. HP laptop + Coffee + three sugars + ...wait for it... + the coffee was made with condensed milk.
Unbelievably only the keyboard was goosed; that pure sugary goodness was too thick to get in to anything important. £22 later (and a lot of cursing and chiseling to remove the now firmly welded keyboard) and all is good.
Ah so many stories from our various building sites that I could regale you all with...
Don’t fight automation software for control, just turn it off. FAST
It's been 50 years since those damn dirty apes took the planet by storm
User thanked IT department for fast new server, but it had never left its box
CrashPlan crashes out of cloudy consumer backup caper
The Internet of Flying Thing: Reg man returns with explicit shots
Julian Assange wins at hide-and-seek game against Sweden
Why Microsoft's Windows game plan makes us WannaCry
Tuesday 16th May 2017 11:47 GMT
Hang on another minute...
Microsoft have a bit of a cheek saying people should install patches more quickly. I hold my breath every time I roll out a patch Tuesday mother load just in case one of the patches breaks something else! They kind of have a bit of a record there. No wonder people are reticent to do so until it's proven to be sound, though March to May is little long, it's a defensive mind set which becomes a habit.
Riddle me this: What's green and freezes cloudy penguins?
Nest Cam: A compelling piece of hardware-software
Thursday 17th November 2016 12:23 GMT
I also wondered about the cable. I personally would bring the cable inside to an internal socket so at least the little sods couldn't snip it! Except the 3m of camera attached cable is terminated with a ruddy great connector so you'd need a big hole instead of a nice cable sized hole finished with a plastic plug.
I also agree with the comments above re criminals covering their face. However if plod have anything about them they would canvas the local area to see if any near or distant neighbours have CCTV that may have caught an image of the would be swag-wrangler making his way to and from the crime scene and match the trackie/shell suit etc.
PS Sorry all for the double post earlier...bloody IE!!!
Thursday 17th November 2016 09:18 GMT
What would be really nice...
...is this kind of hardware/software experience but the ability to point it at cloud storage you already ̶o̶w̶n̶ rent i.e. iCloud, Amazon, OneDrive etc. I suppose that's where they make their money, subscriptions et al.
On a slightly unrelated note (to this particular device), I never quite "get" the local storage thing for security devices either. If the criminals are brazen enough to break in to your house then going the "extra mile" and nicking the NVR or NAS etc is nothing to them. Once the footage is gone forever, the nice shiny camera is as useful as a damp sock. Sure you could bolt the box down, shield it in 1/4 steel plating and position gun turrets around it but I'd gladly just pay another £100 for the device and it allow me the option to point to cloud storage I already subscribe to. Another option is for the manufacturer to add £50 to the price of the device and charge £1 a month to "turn on" the feature there by saving them Lord only knows how much on data centres, storage, cooling, backups etc etc.
I await the inevitable down votes.
Exploding phablet phears phorce Samsung Galaxy Note 7 delay
Lester Haines: RIP
Astroboffins' discovery gives search for early life a left hand. Or right
It's [insert month] of 2016, and your Windows PC can still be owned by [insert document type]
Tuesday 14th June 2016 20:13 GMT
Re: The obligatory question
Bless him, still going after these years and providing useful stuff.
https://www.grc.com/never10.htm
Tried it, used it. It works by creating/setting two keys in your registry.
All credit to Mr Gibson, the following is paraphrased from his site.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx
Under this key, the 32-bit DWORD value “DisableGwx” is set to 1.
When DisableGwx is set to 1, the upgrade offer icon is suppressed.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
Under this key, the 32-bit DWORD value “DisableOSUpgrade” is set to 1.
When DisableOSUpgrade is set to 1, any previously downloaded Windows 10 files are deleted and Windows will never attempt to upgrade the current operating system.
Half of Brit small biz hit by cyber crime. 10% spend zilch on infosec
Tuesday 14th June 2016 13:46 GMT 
"SMEs need to realise that they’re a target of DDoS, hacking and malware attacks just like bigger firms."
Unfortunately SME's don't have the big bucks like the bigger firms. Either the bucks for large(r) highly skilled IT teams or top end AV (if it's even worth it these days). And then there is the UTM's and the inevitable license/subscription attached to both which pushes the cost per "meat-in-a-seat" higher and higher.
Judge slams BT for blaming engineer after 7 metre ceiling plunge
Uber helicopter taxis
The Microsoft-LinkedIn hookup will be the END of DAYS, I tell you
I spy with my little fibre, ten million or so galaxies
Apple launches HomeKit app – but where are the products?
Boffins: There's a ninth planet out there – now we just need to find it
EE, O2, Giffgaff, BT Mobile customers cut off as mobile networks fail
Lenov-lol, a load of Tosh, and what the Dell? More bad holes found in PC makers' bloatware
Sunday 6th December 2015 19:15 GMT
Person in the street...
The other thing to be noted here is our "Geek Status" (I generalise but you know what I mean).
I 100% agree with previous comments about wiping the machine and rebuilding. However Joe/Josephine Public go to Dell's site to download these "driver thingies" after wiping their machine and are presented with "Enter a Service Tag" or...hang...this looks easier..."Auto-detect your product". This promptly downloads the Dell System Detect and they (thinking they have done the right thing) open the machine up again to all and sundry. Substitute Dell with another manufacturer of your choosing, I happen to work with Dells at my place.
As "Geeks" we know this about kind of thing but poor ol' Joe/Josephine believe they've done the right thing. The true question here is where is the boundary between user education (they should know this stuff) and Corporate responsibility (THE MAN shouldn't do this stuff).
Reg reader achieves bronze badge, goes directly to jail
Wednesday 18th November 2015 12:32 GMT
Like I'm worried...it's a bootnotes article. Now were it a serious piece of journalism about Crypto4/SAN all flash arrays/Net neutrality etc I could understand the "humour removed at birth" individual above. However I shall accept my downvotes with joy, join them together in a daisy chain about my head and poke a flower down each of your barrels...peace out brothers and sisters!
iPad data entry errors caused plane to strike runway during takeoff
Monday 16th November 2015 12:38 GMT
Re: Using toys as tools...
@Dave_Horn
Completely off IT topic but as a pilot maybe you can explain something to me.
The article states the aircraft had lighter than reality weight entries and hotter than reality engines temperatures. Would the aircraft not have been more sluggish i.e. heavier and engines running less thrust? Why would the noise pitch up, wouldn't the angle of ascent been lower than usual...not higher?
In case you haven't guessed a wanna be pilot typing this but at 45 I'm to old, fat and baldness would probably preclude me too.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
