* Posts by Dan 55

15336 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2009

BT's hiring! 500 more customer service folk to answer your angry calls

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Customer Hatred

I see your Orange France and raise you Telefonica.

Icelandic Pirate Party sails away from attempt to form government

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Nice

Well, if they do what happened in Spain, there were elections, nobody agreed with anyone, elections were repeated, nobody agreed with anyone, elections were repeated, and finally as enough people got bored and didn't vote the last time, it tipped the balance towards the incumbent party and the incumbent opposition party imploded. So I'd hold onto your cynicism for the moment.

Samsung revival hamstrung by 2014 Google deal – analyst

Dan 55 Silver badge

You sure about that?

I don't think anyone's missing the days when there were three copies everything (AOSP Calendar, Samsung Calendar, Google Calendar...).

Higher tech prices ARE here to stay. It's Mr Farage's new Britain

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Brexit means brexit.

Of course they count given the closeness of the result. They might have abstained because they didn't like either option, they didn't believe the referendum campaigns, amongst other things.

Thanks for the advice about education, Dr Nick Riviera. I consider education lifelong so it's not really an insult. Hopefully there won't be too many cuts to adult education in post-Brexit Britain... except higher education of course. And probably any other kind of education due to plummeting tax receipts if the government wilfully persists with a plan of leaving both the EU and EEA/EFTA (the referendum only specified leaving the EU).

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Brexit means brexit.

Half (52%) did not vote to leave and half (48%) did not vote to remain. The turnout was 72%. 28% didn't vote at all.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Flame

Today's Brexit news

Having previously said that foreign higher education students will be counted as part of the immigration statistics, unlike many other countries, today it's announced that the number of visas for higher education students will be halved. So half of four and a half-billion in fees + accommodation + what they spend on goods and services (plus VAT) lost.

Nobody thinks higher education students are an immigration problem. They can't get a job and they pay for the NHS.

Utter stupidity and it's only because the dull-witted Tory party are scared shitless of the mob voting UKIP (which they will probably do anyway) and want to come out and say they could cut at least 150,000 a year off the figures.

They will fuck up the country.

UK.gov has outsourced tech policy to Ofcom because it is clueless – SNP techie

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Pot meet kettle

Seems strange that an SNP MP of all politicians would be against more data sharing considering his party's record on the matter.

Maybe he's their version of David Davis (when he took up civil liberties matters), his party can point to him and say "look, we've got him, we're nice really".

Microsoft announces 16 years of support for Windows, SQL Servers

Dan 55 Silver badge

At last

It's what they should be doing with Windows 7.

They're also preemptively looking for another income stream because they know customers have no intention of moving to the latest version until the last minute and that's only if they've got no other choice, but anyway.

Ransomware scum offer free decryption if you infect two mates

Dan 55 Silver badge
Happy

Re: Your chance to win!

Don't laugh, Johnny B. Shite's got an off-premises backup. He's doing quite well.

Germany warns Moscow will splash cash on pre-election propaganda and misinformation spree

Dan 55 Silver badge

Possibly. There are a lot of people are destabilised enough to use Facebook in the first place.

I didn't downvote BTW.

IBM has an on-prem cloud it thinks can go big in Asia

Dan 55 Silver badge
WTF?

Do you have a pile of x86 going spare in a country we don't operate our cloud in?

Pay us so you can use it anyway!

Neo-Nazi man jailed for anti-Semitic Twitter campaign against MP

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: You must not delete the internet history on any of the devices.

You must not use private browsing mode?

You must not use AAISP or a VPN based abroad?

For God's sake, stop trying to make Microsoft Bob a thing. It's over

Dan 55 Silver badge

At the moment it looks like the poor woman has been sucked through her laptop screen into MS' version of The Upside Down. It's empty and desolate except a floating white window (program has stopped responding, do you wish to restart or wait some more?), a possible way back through the mirror-world laptop, a Skype, a recycle bin with a plant stuck in it, and a Bob.

She'd better get out of there before the Bob realises she's there, hunts her down, and eats her up.

Nobody's going to pay money for this, it's not going to gain any traction. It's as absurd as MS getting into the videocard business. MS would be better off leaving the VR hardware alone and making just the software platform.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Destroy All Monsters

No access to private e-mail from work. It needs to be a web form, preferably with HTTPS, because, you know, everyone has to start somewhere.

Make it so.

Latest loon for Trump's cabinet: Young-blood-loving, kidney-market advocate Jim O'Neill

Dan 55 Silver badge

Christ America, you're even more fucked than the UK

End of observation.

Bluetooth 5.0 emerges, ready to chew on the internet of things

Dan 55 Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Is it still called an industry standard if

You're Bluetoothing it wrong. You need to send the photo from the Android phone via Bluetooth to a MacBook which does work and from there send it via iTunes to the iPhone. Don't forget the dongle if it's a new MacBook.

It just works.

Trend Micro AV nukes innocent Sharepoint code, admins despair

Dan 55 Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Virus wars

The first casualty of Sharepoint is innocence.

Firmware freakout sends Epson Wi-Fi printers into reboot loop

Dan 55 Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Its happening on lots of Epson printers.

Google's confirmed they've decided to unilaterally change the Cloud Print API. Obviously they had left it alone too long.

Now Epson should deal more gracefully with the change but the end result is the same - no printing.

Dan 55 Silver badge
Windows

Re: Spooky

I went with not enabling any web/email enabled printing or allowing automatic printer firmware updates on my HP. That was when I got it, but I like to think that HP only now releasing updates which close Telnet and FTP ports on their printers means they know sod all about security and I was right.

Who killed Pebble? Easy: The vulture capitalists

Dan 55 Silver badge

You're probably right, but Christmas sales might have shown that they could continue.

Dan 55 Silver badge

I find it hard to believe money couldn't be found to keep it going till Christmas before taking a decision on the future of the company what with the money that VCs burn on idiotic crap.

They had the products in the market already, the just needed to manufacture and advertise them for the Christmas period. Instead they pulled the plug before the most important sales period of the year.

China is building a full scale replica of the Titanic to repeatedly crash into iceberg

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: They should rename it

Came for the Brexit joke, was not disappointed.

Perhaps the iceburg will be labelled "Conservative Party", like some American-style political cartoon with everything written on it.

Fitbit picks up Pebble, throws Pebble as far as it can into the sea

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: El reg bias

Android Wear is a pretty meh experience as smart watches go. There's still lots of diversity in smart watch OSes.

Mind you, that didn't stop Android taking off either.

Dan 55 Silver badge
WTF?

No support or warranties, threat of it turning into a dumbwatch

Is that legal?

Well I suppose it would be in the US.

Playtime's over: Internet-connected kids toys 'fail miserably' at privacy

Dan 55 Silver badge
FAIL

And he didn't even realise that was the entire problem

"Upon learning of the consumer advocacy groups' concerns through media, we validated that we have adhered to our policy with respect to the voice data collected through the toys referred to in the complaint"

Policy stores data outside the EU.

Policy says it can be changed at any moment.

Policy says data can be used for advertising.

Policy says data can be disclosed to unnamed 3rd parties.

Policy doesn't have any security guarantees.

So basically he just said, "fuck you".

HMS Illustrious sets sail for scrapyard after last-ditch bid fails

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Utterly shameful

I'm not a millennial but I probably am a special snowflake. Whatever, I can't remember the Mail spewing so much poison into the national conciousness as now, and that's saying something. It's pure opinion dressed up as a newspaper.

I was a robot and this is what I learned

Dan 55 Silver badge
Terminator

Re: Picture paints 1000 words

Definitely needs some ED-209 guns.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Picture paints 1000 words

I'm imagining a Segway with a screen stuck on top, and a computer with Skype and a joystick at the other end. Is that accurate?

Perhaps if they kitted it out with ED-209's weapons and had a robot voice effect button that would help to get past people.

Russia's bid for mobile self-sufficiency may be the saviour of Sailfish

Dan 55 Silver badge

Nokia

They should make it easy for Sailfish to be installed on their mobiles without invalidating the guarantee and donate too. Best chance Sailfish has in the west.

Standards body warned SMS 2FA is insecure and nobody listened

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: SMS isn't really two factor

If you've got a dumbphone then it wouldn't help you, but the vast majority of people use smartphones which can be stolen and can have malware installed.

And that's before some bright spark with your address and your phone number tries it on with your network operator to get a duplicate SIM.

There needs to be less using SMS 2FA under the guise of getting your phone number and more using FreeOTP. While not perfect it's a step up from SMS.

Dan 55 Silver badge

SMS isn't really two factor

1. Seal somebody's mobile.

2. Email's already logged in. Now I know their account.

3. Go to I've forgotten my password page for their email provider.

4. Recovery by SMS.

5. Copy and paste number delivered by message SMS into browser.

6. Change password.

Where's the second factor?

If your smart home gear hasn't updated recently, throw it in the trash

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Throw i(o)t in the trash? - There's an app for that

Does it have a compartment you can fill.with I-o-Tat?

New British flying robot killer death machines renamed 'Protector'

Dan 55 Silver badge
Mushroom

Peacekeep at will with extreme prejudice.

The UK's Investigatory Powers Act allows the State to tell lies in court

Dan 55 Silver badge
Flame

Re: Reasonable Doubt

Accused of hacking a bank? Possibly a bit of extra evidence just to help the case along. But anyone the establishment sees as a threat will be accused of kiddy fiddling and we all know it. *

I hope nobody's pinning their hopes on prosecution witnesses stumbling at the "do you swear you're telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" bit.

* Unless it's themselves in which case the inquiry collapses into a farce. Allegedly.

Guessing valid credit card numbers in six seconds? Priceless

Dan 55 Silver badge

Unfortunately the Datagreedos say, "computer says 'yes'".

Try arguing with that.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Malwarebytes

It is if network.dns.disablePrefetch is false or network.prefetch-next is true in about:config.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Begins with A, ends in N

If web/phone merchants use it, they shouldn't store it, just make the transaction and forget it. Amazon UK doesn't ask for it when you add a card and doesn't ask for it when you buy something.

Unless they think something's up with your card?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Well El Reg has often not linked to websites in the past precisely because they were dodgy. I think this would be another one that falls into that category, especially with modern browsers helpfully pre-fetching pages unless you specifically tell them not to.

Good job this is December, in January you might wonder if you wanted that site in your Internet Connection Record.

Team Trump snubs Big Internet oligarchs

Dan 55 Silver badge
Facepalm

Let's go to www.blackstone.com

Let's glance at the home page.

Yep, the poor voting for Trump is like turkeys voting for Christmas.

In EU, Veritas: Post-Symantec firm flogs data protection 'safety' to biz

Dan 55 Silver badge

Should have gone for the Westworld quote

"NetBackup is the one who is free. Free here, under Veritas' control."

Elon Musk-backed OpenAI reveals Universe – a universal training ground for computers

Dan 55 Silver badge
Terminator

So... they're teaching AIs how to use the net before launching them onto the real world.

What could possibly go wrong with that?

Linus Torvalds finds 163 reasons to wait a week for a new Linux

Dan 55 Silver badge

"we may have to do without Linux 4.10 until March 2017"

Version numbers in Linux seem to have suffered the same fate that has fallen Chrome and Firefox. Once upon a time it seemed we were on 2.26 for an age... and we were thankful for it.

Cyanogen parts ways with its founder

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: The curse of M$ investment?

No, the curse of inept business partners.

Link

Apple blames air for iPhone 6S's narcolepsy

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Admissions

Oh they will fix it. Unless there's a scratch on the screen or something which means they simply must fix that as well, and they'll charge you for it.

Brexit means Brexit: What the heck does that mean...

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Goldsmith lost in Richmond because of it. Apparently.

At worst people wanting to move may have to do a bit of paperwork, and some may be refused, but I daresay it will still be much easier then moving to the USA, or Australia, etc.

If Brits are to be treated as non-EU citizens by the 27 EU countries, this would mean a lot of things that happen now won't be catered for. Single people would have more difficulties with residency, partners would need to marry, it throws a spanner in the works if you have children but you aren't married, you might need to find work before you arrive, and if you lose your job that might cause residency problems. Under the British system, families have been split up due to the foreign parent losing their job or not reaching a minimum income level despite the British parent earning enough for both.

Is flying to Sweden noticeably different than flying to (non-EU) Norway?

They are both in the EEA and both in the Schengen area. This won't fly* with a large number of the Tory party.

* Did you see what I did?

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Goldsmith lost in Richmond because of it. Apparently.

She hasn't even taken the oath yet and she's talking about using Parliament to override a democratic vote. Shameful.

Parliament has the last word in all domestic law. That's the way the democratic vote in the UK works.

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Codification of existing practice?

The charter allows any one of 48 government departments to get a list of all servers visited from your ISPs (broadband and mobile) and from there query the servers belonging to CSPs they've served a notice to which forces them to cooperate. That's not existing practice.

Dan 55 Silver badge

And there's also the Snooper's Charter

Would any foreign corporation really want to store their data in the UK with that in force?

Windows 10 market share growth just barely has a pulse

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: For me...

The sales figures for the new Nokia phones will bury the sales figures for any MS offering... and we will all be cheering them on from the sidelines.

Sky: Stuff your quad play – customers want separate bills

Dan 55 Silver badge

Re: Bizarre

Don't question the market!