* Posts by Dan 55

15336 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2009

Oi, force Microsoft to cough up emails on Irish servers to the Feds, US states urge Supremes

Dan 55 Silver badge

I think David Davis statement last Sunday and the subsequent reaction by the EU showed gov.uk that people outside the UK can actually read, listen, and view media from inside the UK.

Yet that statement was submitted on Wednesday so they still haven't really got their head round that fact.

Murdoch's Fox empire is set to become a literal Mickey Mouse outfit

Dan 55 Silver badge
Alert

Spectrum ROM

Oh dear, I've just realised this probably means Disney now have the rights to it (they went from Sinclair to Amstrad to Sky but Amstrad let anyone copy it if they credited them and Sky didn't change that).

Hopefully Disney's fleet of IP lawyers won't notice what they've got. If they do they might not rest until the whole of the Internet is scrubbed of the ROM images.

Dan 55 Silver badge

El Reg have done us the courtesy of translating it from a foreign language to English.

I think we can all progress on that contact point.

Brit film board proposed as overlord of online pr0nz age checks

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Why not copy mobile?

1) The government don't want you to have control.

2) This is all about the Great British Soverign Offical DNS Transparent Proxy, and the excuse is it's required to hit foreign sites without age verification with a ban hammer.

I didn't downvote you by the way, some people might find ISP level control useful, if it's optional.

Google lies about click-fraud refunds and tried to destroy us – ad biz

Dan 55 Silver badge

Oh, so you were witholding payment then

"We have a longstanding policy of refunding advertisers for invalid traffic. As we recently announced, this is currently being expanded to include ads purchased via DoubleClick Bid Manager.”

I mean, Google's only owned DoubleClick since 2007.

No one saw it coming: Rubin's Essential phone considered anything but

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Digital 'Tat'

In response to the your quote from the article, anyone would think walled gardens turn out to be highly expensive for little return. If what they want to do is slurp data and advertise the shit out of us, the software should be able to run on any platform.

Former ZX Spectrum reboot project man departs

Dan 55 Silver badge

Don't give 'em ideas...

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: What about the Spectrum Next?

They are different use cases, computer vs portable.

However if you want a portable Speccy then a homebrewed Nintendo DS is probably the way to go, judging by how the Vega+ has turned into a steaming pile.

Your post made me look at the Spectrum Next website again after several months and it appears they delievered a board to their kickstarter funders, will have board and cased versions in their online shop early next year, and also have real community. Now if only I had the time to waste, er, invest...

Dan 55 Silver badge

Meanwhile on the Spectrum everything was done on software.

Hey, what about FLASH? That's yer hardware-driven palette changing right there.

FREE zero-day for every reader: AT&T's DirecTV kit has a root hole – and no one wants to patch it

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Well so where's the problem?

I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to knock up malware which looks for this device on the LAN and recruits it as a botnet or turns it into a Monero miner.

That's what's wrong with it.

Put down the eggnog, it's Patch Tuesday: Fix Windows boxes ASAP

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: IE and Edge

It's the only browser that does 4K Netflix. If you're happy with 1080p then use any browser you like, which is probably a good idea as Edge is IE11 with the ActiveX bits #ifdef'd out and an even more horrid UI.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Top Xmas tip

But what if I'm a sysadmin of MS products and need booze just to get through the day?

Intel to slap hardware lock on Management Engine code to thwart downgrade attacks

Dan 55 Silver badge

They are different things. The SMM is not the same as the ME. You can (or should be able to) design a chip with the SMM but without the ME.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: If ME would be the first feature Intel wouldn't charge extra

Dell charge $20 extra to disable the chip (i.e. flip the HAP bit) for you, on some laptops. Then there's Purism and System 76.

https://fossbytes.com/laptops-intel-me-chip-disabled/

Hey, we've toned down the 'destroying society' shtick, Facebook insists

Dan 55 Silver badge

Quality trolling from Facebook

All that was missing was blaming Chamath for what they did while he was there (that they don't do now anyway).

Brrr! It's a snow day and someone has pwned the chuffin' school heating

Dan 55 Silver badge
Meh

"Searches on the Internet of Things each engine Shodan by PTP"

I could do that if I got out my credit card and coughed up. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Netflix silent about ridicule as it discusses punters' viewing habits

Dan 55 Silver badge
Mushroom

Former Facebook VP: Mea culpa!

Former Facebook executive: social media is ripping society apart

Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice-president of user growth, expressed regret for his part in building tools that destroy ‘the social fabric of how society works’

Unfortunately a) it's pretty fucking late now to realise all the bad things you've done once you've slurped everyone's data and b) Facebook is not going to shut up shop.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Twitter

It's all innocent fun until lack of data oversight becomes an issue, as it did when a Twitter contractor shut down President Trump's Twitter account for 11 minutes last month.

It turned out the contractor in question received a complaint about one of El Presidente's tweets and acted upon it following Twitter's own T&Cs, which is arguably more fair than the lack of data oversight which is keeping the account open despite whatever is posted so Twiter gets more hits.

Big tech wants the ICO on EU data protection board in Brexit fallout

Dan 55 Silver badge
Facepalm

Smile, it's Tate & Lyle

Well it's not going to happen. Thanks to DD's outburst on Sunday, the EU have hardened their language. The UK will not be a member and will not have observer status on any EU body or agency.

And to think that I once thought he was one of the small amount of decent politicians.

Berners-Lee, Woz, Cerf: Cancel flawed net neutrality vote

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Whaaat?

NN is a settled science, it's called peering arrangements. Additional charging is just double dipping by telecos and squeezing out the competition and it's nothing more complicated than that.

Microsoft asks devs for quantum leap of faith

Dan 55 Silver badge

If it helps them find a version of Windows without slurping and TIFKAM, I'm all for it.

Shazam! Apple chucks £300m at Brit what's-that-song app – report

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: A very long time ago...

Voice shortcodes are run by companies who have agreements with all operators.

Presumably one company had 2xxx or 25xx and Shazam went with them. It was easier than a premium rate number. You rang one number which was easy to remember, it lasted exactly 30 seconds, were charged a fixed amount, and everyone got their slice.

So you're 'agile', huh? I do not think it means what you think it means

Dan 55 Silver badge
Stop

No true agile developer...

- Is agile development not working for you?

- No, it´s not.

- It's not really agile then.

Tired of despairing of Trump and Brexit? Why not despair about YouTube stars instead?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Or if you've got a good face for radio you could look at it as a technical challenge

Find your perfect non-discerning audience, game YouTube's algorithms, generate thousands of videos, everybody's in on it and nobody gives a toss except some primary caregivers who don't matter because in the end it's all about upholding the pretence that that advertising is useful in some way and there's money in that, damn it.

Weird Kids' Videos and Gaming the Algorithm

Hitchcock cameo steals opening of Oracle v Google Java spat

Dan 55 Silver badge

And as much as we don't like Google, if it turns out that Oracle wins and APIs can be copyrighted, then we can all look forward to lawyers finding new work rewinding programming languages back to BCPL or before.

Apple gets around to patching all the other High Sierra security holes

Dan 55 Silver badge

Apple should try making OS X its own unit again

Instead of an afterthought where iOS programmers do stuff when they've got some free time.

Facebook Messenger ... for who now? Zuck points his digital crack at ever younger kids

Dan 55 Silver badge

Miiverse

As a My First Social Network, Nintendo got it about right. It was moderated to within an inch of its life and if you got banned it meant you had to use a new Network ID which you didn't want to do as they are a limited number per console. It turned out to be a nice social network (mostly) about gaming.

Shame it just got knocked on the head, they didn't want to carry on with it on the Switch.

But a Silicon Valley business will never give us with a nice social network because they're obsessed with doing everything with dubiously-effective algorithms instead of realising that they need spend money enploying humans to proactively moderate.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: OK...

David Cameron who got a £25,000 one?

I was going to put "who bought one for £25,000" but I guess his advertising mentioning the company bought it for him.

Dan 55 Silver badge

UK.gov could do something and just pass a damn law or two, but the mass of PPEs are incapable of formulating what it should be.

The 13 year old limit only exists because someone in the US decided to pass the COPPA law, if it weren't for that kids in the UK would be completely defenceless.

UK.gov admits Investigatory Powers Act illegal under EU law

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: @ Lysenko

Or we dont put up a border. If the EU do they can have troubles if they want but why do we need to?

Immigration, customs, the usual thing that all countries or trading blocs in the world do.

The EU are banning us from access to the SM and it is their right if they want.

May banned the UK from access to the SM in the Lancaster House speech, she ruled it out then.

The EU is refusing to negotiate, they have said this openly and without shame.

I believe there has to be agreement on three other items first. How can you decide what kind of trade you're doing if you don't even know what the NI/Ireland border looks like first?

Cancelling brexit would be a stupid idea to appease the unappeasable and undemocratic.

"If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy." - David Davis.

Although it means when we have an election we can actually vote for changes without the EU being in the way. We dont let the US or China run our regulations.

We won't be able to change regulations. We can't make our own TV or electrical standards, we'll be tagging on the coat-tails of the rest of the continent. As part of the EU we help set these standards.

Ouch what a huge mistake you made. I assume you mean brexit bill which is the EU wish list of fantasy and stupidity. Firstly it is ment to be for the commitments the EU has already made that they want us to pay toward. Which means the bill is the cost of being in the EU not getting out of the EU and that cost can only increase.

It's for the commitments the UK agreed to fund and signed off.

Second if there is no deal we dont have to give them anything at all (we can choose to if we so wish but its up to us if we want to). So the EU automatically get nothing. No money, no border and no special rights over their citizens unless they negotiate.

Yeah. How do you think the UK will attract inward investment after that?

What concerns me is the people struggling with this concept is the EU and remain supporters.

That's why the PM had to be told in Parliament that there would be no transitional period if the UK crashed out.

It is a real proof of concept that if you so badly dont want to do something you can make poor excuses not to do it. But just because you dont want to leave the EU for whatever actual reason you are chucking out some of the most laughable problems that you are creating then claiming they are unsolvable. So far I have solved those problems pretty quick and easy.

If you consider a sort of collective national suicide as a way of solving problems, yes.

Since 2008 the BoE and Treasury have been trying to reduce the strength of the pound to recover from the recession and bring the country back to a normal state before the next one hits. After the referendum result the currency fell sparking inflation and prompting the BoE to prepare for a rate rise. As a result the property market to stop rushing away from affordability.

Wages are stagnant, zero hours contracts are through the roof, inflation is up, your average millennial doesn't have the money to buy a house, and food bank usage in the UK has never been higher. Glad it's working out for you though.

The UK now out of the EU is starting to move that way.

Sorry, what was that? Did you really write that? Do you have the remotest clue what's going on? Or to put it succinctly, WTF?

The EU is years behind the recovery.

That'll be why the ECB is winding up QE next year.

And after the clusterfuck that is this week in politics in the UK, there really is no reason for Brexit as it is envisioned. A year and a half later and we find out there has been not one in-depth study and the cabinet hasn't even been able to talk to work out what kind of exit from the EU they want, the whole charade was brought to a screeching halt by the DUP, and there's two days to sort it out otherwise the next EU summit will be missed. But when you're in the Brexit suicide cult and are about to drink the kool-aid, I guess you've got a different perspective.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: @ Lysenko

Ahh so this is only an insult against the Irish. Thats ok then

No, it's only an insult against the DUP.

And are you getting them onside with this?

I really think I have very little bearing on the Brexit negotiations.

What is your side of this? Do you want a border or no?

I am able to recognise that a Brexit which includes exiting the CU and SM logically means there will be border which in turn means the Troubles will restart. Therefore the UK's best options are cancelling Brexit or staying in the CU and SM.

Ok. The point is still pretty solid that we voted brexit and so we are doing brexit. No amount of goalpost moving negates that.

Not really. If as Davis says it's "regulatory alignment" for all the UK then that's as good as the EEA. All Brexit was then was a vote to give a lot of money to the EU, to have no say in the SM and CU rules, and to pay yearly EEA subs which are a little cheaper but get you much less.

And at that point, many people will start to ask the question, "why not stop Brexit"?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: @ Lysenko

Part of the reason for Brexit as proposed by Leave was taking back control and slowing down immigration. How do you propose that gets done without a border?

Every country has a customs border except for those countries in a customs union who have a customs border around the outer edge of the countries that make up the union.

What would happen if, as threatened by the likes of Farage, the whole of Turkey went through Northern Ireland, do you think the DUP, the Tories, and people who voted leave would be okay with that?

Oh wow is this a religious thing now?

I didn't make it up and it's a good name for a bunch of backward God bothering types who want abortion to remain illegal and homosexuality to be illegal.

"Won the vote" is enough. Where do you get 1% from? The difference was greater.

Your quote is wrong, you've changed the text. 1% was the DUP's share of the vote in the elections and as remain won in NI, they cannot be said to be representing NI.

NI doesn't want a border. The DUP said they didn't want a border. The government struck a deal without a border. The DUP, who don't represent NI, rejected the deal and forced the government to backtrack.

There is no way you can describe the DUP as anything other than a minority, and they don't even represent wishes of the part of the UK which they claim to represent.

Nokia 8: As pure as the driven Android - it's a classy return

Dan 55 Silver badge

Are there any Sleeping Screen/Glance options, like the Symbian and Lumia Nokias had?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: But google insist!

There'll never be a clean "no Google" option out of the box. Play Store terms and conditions don't give OEMs (or end customers) a choice.

Dan 55 Silver badge

I do hope it's not the Google Gallery app which is always bugging you to upload your photos for places you've just been to.

What's worse than it existing is that people actually do what it tells them to do.

Dan 55 Silver badge

It's called The Phone House on the continent.

Mozilla and Yahoo! trade sueballs over Firefox-Google search deal

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: RE: Adam

So it's all good then.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Yahoo! has a reputation that can be harmed!?

It's the long tail.

Data-slurping keyboard app makes Mongo mistake with user data

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Keyboard Apps?

Only in the developer of the OS also slurps using the default keyboard.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Why do people find the need to use a keyboard with Internet access?

It's pretty obvious what's going to happen.

Lineage OS or something like Hacker's Keyboard or Simple Keyboard will do the job just as well.

Quentin Tarantino in talks to make Star Trek movie

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Well Discovery has the occasional swearing

Yes, I watched B5 and DS9/Voyager alongside each other back in the day.

They were both different visions of the future, I liked them both, and nobody tried to make another series set in their universes which was so out of place it was jarring... until now of course.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: few substances stronger than alien liqueurs

We've already been treated to that in Discovery.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Well Discovery has the occasional swearing

I don't even consider myself a hardcore Trekkie, but do you know why hardcore Trekkies hate Discovery? Because until then it had an optimistic vision of the future. Even Seth MacFarlain's effort is better to watch than Discovery.

Star Trek: Discovery could have done well enough if it were called something else and not trying to fit into a universe it's not made for.

And if Tarantino gets to make a ST film then we might as well stick a fork in Star Trek because it's done.

Apple sprays down bug-ridden iOS 11 with more fixes

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Pulled out my arse?

Use Simple Keyboard which doesn't have Internet access, disable Gboard.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Smug

Unless things have changed recently, you have the option to opt out of iCloud on the iPhone. Updates and backups can be done with iTunes.

I really doubt the Play Services binary does nothing if you don't sign in. It will still probably send WiFi and cell tower info to Google without asking permission.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Can you please...

If it's any consolation Google have just fixed 47 bugs which you can get by buying a new phone.

Hot growth industry: checking social networks for nasties

Dan 55 Silver badge

Oh good

Perhaps they could make YouTube Kids completely moderated instead of letting a machine learning algorithm decide that Spiderman getting Elsa pregnant is suitable viewing for five year olds.