Posts by Mr Templedene

I started using Linux as my primary OS in 2004 with Mandrake, then moved on to Mandriva and finally Mageia. Very happy with it.

My current machine dual boots to Win10 as my kids like to play games with me and it's so much easier just using Microsoft for that. Yes I know there are ways around it but I don't bother. What's revealing is just how much faster and more responsive Mageia is compared to Win10.

I had a little netbook which had a push-to-make slider switch for the WiFi so you couldn't even tell from the position if it was on or off. That was a very stupid design flaw IMHO.

Fortunately, the WiFi manager GUI in the version of LINUX I had on it had a nice obvious WiFi hardware status indicator.

If you've been careless enough to buy and start using one of these devices, before taking el-reg's advice about disassembling the device with a hammer and deleting the app, make sure you remove all data and photos from the central server.

Assuming they don't keep everything as a matter of course (for "security reasons") and simply mark it as deleted.

This AI wrote a fantastic headline!

Click here to find out how

star out all but the first and last 2 letters of the name

e.g. John Doe would be Jo*****oe

Enough for a human to identify that it's almost certainly going to the right person, as the chances of a wrong number giving the same details is minimal enough to be insignificant, and Robert's your fathers brother.

Tracking Protection in Firefox

Turning this on removes pretty much all of the annoying ads for me, and anything that does get through is at least not tracking me.

I disable it for a handful of important sites, such as el reg.

Vivaldi on Linux looks great, and I'd choose it over any other browser except for two things

1. Very slow to switch between tabs, I mean "did I really click that" slow (counted off 3 seconds just now)

2. No H.264/MP4 video playback

And yes, that is with the latest version, downloaded yesterday.

Can't speak for how it works on Windows

I'd uninstall flash in a ... well, erm you know, but I still like to see BBC video :( come on Aunty Beeb, get your finger out.

Also I have noticed that a lack of flash (it's set to run only on approval) triggers some websites annoying "anti-adblock" blockers.

I used to use an adblocker, but got frustrated by having to whitelist sites left right and centre, and the fact that on some sites I saw a noticeable slow down of the site because of it.

When I removed the adblocker from firefox I left in place the firefox "do not track" option and turned off flash (allow if I say so), and I am noticing now a number of websites (wired, torygraph and more) detect that option as "you are using an adblocker"

Well FU, I don't want to be tracked, I will quite happily let you serve me ads, but if they try to track me from site to site, that is unacceptable!

The register, fortunately, seems OK with the "do not track option" and I am happy to see the ads it serves, now that the ones that expanded over what I was reading have been shot down.

Advertisers need to realise that, actually, I, and I am sure more like me, will click through on something they see that looks relevant, but will be put off by "aggressive" ads that auto play audio (video) or try to blat themselves over what I am reading.

Advertisers need to take note that the viewing audience is becoming more technical, and more intolerant of crap.

Facebook has got it under control, and I think I have clicked through to more ads on facebook than all other websites combined

I used ghostery for quite a while, but decided I could put up with ads when an update meant it seemed to ignore whitlisted sites and keep blocking.

After I removed it, ad-block detection still detects that I have an ad-blocker running, even though now I don't!

That is very annoying, wired and fark are two of the obvious guilty parties.

I know plenty of people who would plug a USB stick into a computer to see what was on it and take a look to see if they could work out who owned it so they could return it.

There was a time I would have done that myself.

But as to using one of these, a lot of people see it as a prank, but if you wanted to be malicious, you could simply post one to your intended victim. It seems that most precautions normal people might take, like scanning it for viruses etc., disabling auto-run etc. would not help, and leave them with fried components.

Two I remember which were fun and non destructive, but were detected and flagged as viruses by anti virus software:-

popcorn, that changed the keyboard beep note so that as you typed it played the tune "popcorn"

It was fun briefly, as you tried to get your typing to fit the songs rythm

and "Polite" which got all huffy if you inevitably typed a swear word into the command line, and then refused to let you do anything until you typed in an apology.

6 schools in Leeds received hoax bomb threats on Monday, I wonder if it was this gang?

Who do I write to? and where!

Amazes me how many ID 10 T users don't associate "my foot caught something" with "my computer suddenly went off"

Would they be the same if it were something like a desk light or radio? is it "dummy mode" kicking in simply because it's a computer?

Typical bad timing, I find my power bar very useful, and am just about to embark on a journey in which having it would be very very useful indeed.

Think I'll take my chances until after the trip away. It's never got even slightly warm when charging.

The US patent office used to be a government organisation, and although not perfect, took some care not to approve stupid patents or ones with prior art.

Then they sort of "privatised" it, and it survives only through the payments made to patent something. For some reason or other, they suddenly started approving things that previously wouldn't have got through, making it far easier to get "troll patents"

Odd that, isn't it?

The Pope may not have a wife and kids, but priests don't spring into this world in isolation, fully armed with bell, book and candle.

He has brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and will have sat down to many, many family meals in his lifetime. In his role as a priest he will have joined many families for family meals.

And deep down, we all know he's right, sometimes the only time a family gathers together in one place is for the family meals.

My father, who is well into his 70's had one of these calls.

He runs Linux (that he installs and maintains himself) and kept them talking for 50 minutes by playing dumb and being deliberately slow, then told then he had to go out, and could they ring back. They did, and he kept stringing them along for a further 40 minutes before he got bored and told them he ran Linux. Apparently they know some very rude words!

So who can beat 1 ½ hours

His logic was, well if I keep them talking they have less time to possibly scam one of my friends, and it will cost them both time and money to be on the phone to me that long.

I thought the two big problems facing the BBC in releasing these old programs were legal issues

1. Tracking down everyone that would be due royalties, or their descendants, heirs.

2. The original contracts with the actors, presenters etc. didn't cover re-broadcasting the programs in all future formats and would have to be re-negotiated. (Didn't Dave Allen has a "no repeats" clause in his contract for example?)

I've worked from home a few times, and I am currently self employed so it's a necessity as an office would push my budget to far.

I found the biggest problem was friends and family who assume that as I am "home" I can be at their beck and call, I actually had to start turning away unexpected visitors who "just dropped in for a chat"

So they ignored the north, guess they know their market then ;)

I switched to Mageia three years ago from Mandriva, sad to see it go but as the article says, it was wobbling for some time.

It's slightly premptive to say Mageia is on release 5 as that's still a release candidate, Mageia 4 is still the stable version for now.

Mageia 5 stable wont be long though hopefully.

Considering how often my android phone goes titsup!

And what happens when you want to do something quickly in an emergency and the popup ads make you wait until you've watched the video ;)

"you can brake after this short break"

(yes I am being a tad flippant)

So anyone who uses the same password for google as they do for other sites will see this pop up and warn them?

I'm OK with that.

I made the switch to Linux in 2006, at home anyway.

When I set myself up in business a few years ago I stayed with Linux and can honestly say I have no software I miss from Windows. I have 4 computers for the business and not one of them can even boot into Windows. I have all the tools I need.

Not ready for the desktop? it's been ready for years, just some people are too lazy to learn something new.

People complain that Linux isn't intuitive, having used it exclusively for several years, I can say that coming to Windows now I say exactly the same, it's not intuitive either, it's just what you are used to.

Opera has, or had, a bit torrent client built in. Linux version still does.

Of course that meant that talk talk used to block it every now and then when they wanted to annoy me.

My problem with ad injectors is that my own website, my business, my bread and butter, carry no ads.

An ad injector will be context sensitive, so it will put ads on my pages which will be for rival businesses of a similar nature, and worst of all, I will never know it's happening.

How can I protect my own sites from having adverts placed in them by these obnoxious apps?

Every website owner

Surely every website owner should have a case against them as well, My website carries no adverts as it's an advert in itself for my business. If levono/superfish are plastering ads all over it, especially if they could be either context related (advertising competitors on MY website) or smutty "I'm not using a company that allows smutty adverts on his website" it will be damaging to my business!

And if someone is running a website like El Reg, that is advert supported, and levono/superfish replace them with their own ads, then it's taking revenue from them as well!

So mandatory minimum levels of security and encryption of customer data help by the business holding it isn't going to be made law any time soon?

Oh no, because that might harm profits.

I never remember explicitly giving companies like experian permission to hold data on me.

number6, I agree completely. I also would go as far as to say, ALL exisitng contracts should be made public as well, give them a grace period of say 1 year to adjust and clean up their act then publish the current contract. Give them the opportunity to change a contract if they think think it might look bad on them.

This is why

I was advising my friends to set up consoles before Christmas, to avoid disappointment. Not sure how many bothered to take my advice.

Some of them handwaved me away saying, oh I don't understand it all, the kids can do it.

Even if there had been no hack, the sheer load on the servers would probably have brought them down anyway.

And lets face it D-DOSing these server on Christmas day isn't exactly a challenge.

I heard the term vlog and vlogger quite a few years back, it's hardly a new term.

We had them taken out and shot

Had this problem from both sides, it's always management gets in the way

I enjoyed it, same with last weeks, he's stopped being so irritable.

Good fun romp, it's just not worth being picky.

I use facebook, I've not upgraded the app on my phone for ages though, some of the permissions it wants I wont let it have.

But when I was having a paranoid privacy day I did once remove it, boy did my phone not like that (HTC Desire C) I had to re-install the app to get it working again. :(

I don't remember specifics, and probably could have sorted it out without caving in, but

1. I rather liked having facebook

2. I needed my phone to work