* Posts by Dan 55

15337 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2009

Big Tech slams Trump on plan to deport kids

Dan 55 Silver badge
Flame

Re: Not quite.

They did not sneak into the country, they happened to be born there or were brought there by their parents at a very young age. They did not choose to illegally enter the US.

Letting them grow up alongside other children, go to.school with them, pledge allegiance, etc... so they basically are as American as their peers but then letting it be known that they are not as American as their peers, that there is a sword of Damocles hanging above their heads, and they might be thrown out at some arbitrary age at the whim of the government back to a country they probably don't even remember is the height of stupidity, cruelty, blithering idiocy, is entirely consistent with Trump, and is only done to shore up support from mindless unthinking cretins.

So may I wish a great big hearty fuck you to any of you here who support this... policy, for want of a word.

'Independent' gov law reviewer wants users preemptively identified before they're 'allowed' to use encryption

Dan 55 Silver badge

So, what they're looking for is...

... a way to link each email address and phone number to an identity (e.g. passport, driver's licence, etc...), hold them in some centralised gov database, and allow social media providers to query the DB to check if an email address or phone number has been verified.

I do wish they'd just come out and say what they mean.

We experienced Windows Mixed Reality. Results: Well, mixed

Dan 55 Silver badge

Strange idea for a show

So it seems the writer of this esteemed organ went to a show and found out which vendor wrote the most bug-free device driver for Windows Mixed Reality and MS' Cliff House application.

Cliff. Nobody's going to mention Cliff, Edge, or jumping off. Marketing managed to walk into that one again.

Dan 55 Silver badge

... What about wearing the headset conferencing on the train? You'll probably have the table all to yourself.

Connect at mine free Wi-Fi! I would knew what I is do! I is cafe boss!

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: This is the reality of life

Most people aren't aware of the pitfalls of open WiFi and other stuff and a virus or malware is something that the fates bring. If it goes wrong, it was destined to. If they know someone who can get it fixed, that's destiny too. Very Athenian, but it's spread all around the world.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Coat

Allo Allo

You vill answer our qvestions o ve vill blind you!

Helga, shine ze IoT spotlight! Make it a nice blue colour.

Western Digital has cloudified the NAS and shoved it in a trendy box

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Deja Vu

I had two or three + the obligatory Heartbleed update. I've never connected it to the net.

When it finally dies I think Synology will be the way to go.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: But

Well, you could use your own sync software and point it to the SMB/NFS share on the LAN.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Deja Vu

My Cloud already replaced My Book in 2013. I guess this My Cloud is still the same inside but with a nice new case.

WD used the launch of My Cloud as an excuse to drop firmware updates for My Book. Hopefully they haven't just done the same for 2013 My Cloud owners.

When uploading comments to the FCC, you can now include malware

Dan 55 Silver badge

I bet I know what that webform does

Stick everything in an email, attachment and all, and send it to a mailing list running on an Exchange server. The mailing list emails viewed with Outlook on Windows machines.

Due to sod's law, it couldn't be anything else.

China: Cute Hyperloop Elon, now watch how it's really done

Dan 55 Silver badge

Hyperloop was an open source project

The whole idea was that other companies/countries take it and improve on it.

Police deny Notting Hill Carnival face recog tech led to wrongful arrest

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Masks

No need for a mask, just some shiny clothing and make up, which you never get at carnival.

Or even just some new carnival glasses would do.

A carnival seems to be the worst place to try out this snakeoil that the police bought.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Call Abby Sciuto!

Sorry, she can't come to the phone, she's a bit busy right now.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: DPA requests

They would say it takes too much staff time or the request is vexatious or something.

Microsoft's fix for web graphics going AWOL? Disable your antivirus

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: I have an easier solution.

It's pretty bad that this far after launch, UWP apps and UWPified software like Edge and Mail aren't compatible with screen readers.

Apparently Microsoft Narrator works the best, it doesn't seem they´re that bothered about helping third party screen readers to work. Link

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Untrusted Font?

Well, unless it's Windows 10, fonts are drawn by the GDI which runs with kernel privileges, so a malicious font can cause a privilege escalation...

Tech soap-opera latest: Alexa marries Cortana, will share custody of customers

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: There may be trouble ahead..

Close encounters of the IoT kind?

Dan 55 Silver badge

We don't talk about Tay.

Sweden may extend data retention, splat NAT and register VPNs

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Next one in line

But really, there's no really way of checking how the Internet in the UK is being snooped on until the next big leak so it's academic (if there is a next big leak). Everything's buried in technical notes which have restricted circulation and are under a NDA. The wording could probably be tailored for each person to trace leaks.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Next one in line

The Home Office seems to have ignored the ECJ since last December's ruling against the Snoopers' Charter.

I suppose the fine will now be included as part of the payment for leaving the EU.

Well, debugger me. Microsoft's BSOD fixer is getting a makeover

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: An easier way to analyze Windows memory dump files

the basic crash information displayed in the blue screen

Which I guess for Windows 8 onwards is :( ...

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Know your market

Unfortunately if you hide the ribbon, the toolbars don't come back and the menus don't go back to the way they were.

People don't want the old way because they don't like change, they want the old way because the new way was worse. If MS had come up with a change that was better, people wouldn't still be complaining 10 years on.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Know your market

Why make do with blaming her for the ribbon when she came up with TIFKAM as well?

She is after all responsible for spoiling Windows 7/Office 2007's UI and ruining everything which came afterwards.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Facepalm

Know your market

Yeah. Ribbons will go down well with devs. Good job whoever signed off on that.

India responds to internet shutdown criticism... by codifying rules to make it legal

Dan 55 Silver badge
Paris Hilton

Cameroon took things one step further and cut off the country's southwest and northwest provinces

I misread the first word and wondered what the West Country and Manchester had done to deserve that.

Trump-hating Iranian is the new Uber CEO

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Typical US corporate way of life....

You don't even need to insult him to get arrested.

Press freedom advocates condemn arrest of journalist in West Virginia

Dangle a DVR online and it'll be cracked in two minutes

Dan 55 Silver badge
Devil

Re: Let's think like the marketing department

More likely the order will come down to Software from above that there is no extra time or money for security but instead they have to work smarter, but money would be allocated to Marketing to mitigate the bad PR, and Marketing would come with a new spec on the spec sheet: 0-Pwnage in 120 seconds. It then becomes an industry standard metric and companies compete to get it down.

Dell's flagship XPS13 – a 2-in-1 that may fatally frustrate your fingers

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: and another thing...

How many cameras do you know that use micro-sd.

It's all about the phones these days.

WannaCrypt NHS victim Lanarkshire infected by malware again

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: "Patient support" nice piece of social engineering.

As for what Lanarkshire have gotten, who knows?

Probably a Petya variant, which spreads in more-or-less the same way.

Ad blocking basically doesn't exist on mobile

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: No Root Firewall

Well, there's always F-Droid.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: No Root Firewall

Why don't you just use a calculator or torch that doesn't need Internet access?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Try pihole....

It's an AdBlock for your LAN. The equivalent for an Android phone is AdAway. If you don't have root on your phone then Firefox + uBlock Origin will do.

It's nicer to disable ad blocking for certain sites you read regularly (as long as they don't serve up malvertising).

Node.js forks again – this time it's a war of words over anti-sex-pest codes of conduct

Dan 55 Silver badge
Devil

Re: It is called...

Google tried "don't be evil", didn't really work for them.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Well, I don't know who's done what to whoever

No, JavaScript has rigidly designed areas of doubt and uncertainty.

See for yourself.

Or watch for yourself.

But back to my point, any framework based on JavaScript (which we know has RDAODAU) which has x forks and stuff like this going on in its steering committee isn't calling out to be used. I don't even care about the detail, it just gives off an aura of "you'd be better off choosing something else".

Dan 55 Silver badge

Well, I don't know who's done what to whoever

All I know is that I'd skip node.js and use something else.

Nokia trademark filing reveals name of upcoming drone brand

Dan 55 Silver badge

Also Spanish (objeto volador no identificado). Perhaps they want to give it a generic name so people will immediately think of Nokia's version, something like Hoover.

UK.gov wants quick Brexit deal with EU over private data protections

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: There 'May' come a time

Well they did stall for a year. And had sweet FA to show for it.

Dan 55 Silver badge

I don't think anything's going to happen until EU citizens' rights are sorted out

And with the news about the Home Office sending out a batch of 100 letters to EU citizens threatening deportation, which is the latest in an ongoing problem since last year, the EU will just say that they're not talking about anything else until EU citizens in the UK are guaranteed their rights and have ECJ oversight. The Home Office has just shown why it can't be trusted without ECJ oversight.

Vodafone won't pay employee expenses for cups of coffee

Dan 55 Silver badge

By which I mean that might not reflect well...

Dan 55 Silver badge

You might buy a sandwich if you're not travelling, other people might ordinarily bring their own lunch.

If Vodafone employees brought their own Tupperware to client meetings, that wouldn't reflect well on the employee. If they all did it and and explained their company policy, that might reflect well on Vodafone.

Mozilla ponders making telemetry opt-out, 'cos hardly anyone opted in

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Magnificient!

Why would they need a user study? They've been only too happy to screw up the UI and extensions without one.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Another nail in the coffin...

The release notes for Phoenix 0.1 say "It's a lean and fast browser that doesn't skimp on features" and mention that there were plans for an extension manager. An official addon site came online by the time Firefox 0.9 was released.

So the idea for a non-bloated browser with extensions was there right from the start.

I seem to remember the target was to have a browser that fit on a 1.44M floppy but that had to be dropped. Can't find that online though.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Blocking add-ons?

CTR definitely won't work.

The ones marked "Not compatible with multiprocess" definitely won't work. The ones which are may be compatible, you have to click through to addons.mozilla.org and see if it's got the "Firefox 57+ compatible" tag.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Another nail in the coffin...

I went to Firefox ESR and put the problem off till next year. Cyberfox and Waterfox won't be around for much longer, Palemoon is a bit slow on security updates and slurpy.

If I had to move from Firefox ESR, the first thing I'd look at would be Seamonkey.

(All of these browsers are Mozilla-based.)

Nasty firmware update butchers Samsung smart TVs so bad, they have to be repaired

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Go Samsung!

A Pi for plugged into a TV would be classified as a HTPC, not a computer (Netflix in the browser, keyboard, mouse, etc...).

10-foot UI (it's a thing) means the distance between you and the TV, not the size of the TV screen.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Go Samsung!

So what's wrong with using a computer for that?

Difficult to watch on the sofa, no remote control, no 10-foot UI...

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Go Samsung!

Google depreciated the YouTube v2 API that the 2012 YouTube player app used. That app itself is runs on Flash and looks the same on all TVs, so I guess it comes from Google and they didn't want to update it to use the v3 API.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Happy

Never connected it in the first place...

Icon is a smug face.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Go Samsung!

Upvoted, but in the last paragraph TV sticks don't need power and Pis will work with a 2.5A power supply.

Reality strikes Dixons Carphone's profits after laughing off Brexit threat

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Blame everybody but us

Well, it's shorthand for the shitstorm that's going off due to the referendum result.

Exchange rates, inflation, purchasing power, customer confidence, etc...