* Posts by James 51

3426 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jun 2009

How about that time Russian military used a video game pic as proof of US aiding ISIS?

James 51
Trollface

Re: Meanwhile, a group of Russia watchers calling themselves the Conflict Intelligence Team

You're a Putain troll and I claim my five roubles.

James 51
FAIL

Re: Behind every fake news or conspiracy theory is a little bit of truth

No, you're thinking of legends. That is not how the news works. That's how stories work.

US authorities swallow security-free script for pill that knows when you're off your meds

James 51
Boffin

Re: so what if

Read on several different sites that it is specifically stomach acid so it would need to be quite strong HCl, weak stuff like CH3COOH shouldn't be enough.

US govt's 'foreign' spy program that can snoop on Americans at home. Sure, let's reauth that...

James 51

Surely at some point the inmates are going to lose control of the asylum?

Boffins on alert: Brace yourselves for huge gravitational wave coming within a decade

James 51
Go

As am I. Imagine wasting your life in finance or marketing when you could be doing something cool like that.

US domestic, er, foreign spying bill progresses through Congress

James 51

Re: North Amerikorea

Actually Trump lost the popular vote, it was the electoral college that got him in.

James 51
Trollface

Re: Well, who cares?

DAM, can you make your mind up? We don't know the TLAs are unanimous about anything. I have never heard any assertion that Snowden is a Sino or Soviet plant. Just a U.S. citizen to ended up in the C.I.S. because he'd never get a fair trail in the U.S.A. BTW not only does Trump have Russian ties, I bet he has Russian socks too. Maybe even one of those furry hats.

James 51
FAIL

It is perfectly possible for them to be right about Russia's non-kinetic (and kinetic) warfare against 'the west' and still have lost the objectivity required to realise just how dangerous the power they are asking for is or the harm it will do if they get their mitts on all that data.

James 51

Anyone else notice the number of posts that seem to be attacking everyone and everything like a particularly amped up berserker? It's hard to tell what they're trying to say other than don't believe anything anyone says, every one is bad any there is nothing that can be done about it. Would Putain trolls bother with el Reg commentards given the general level of cynicism here?

Brit cops slammed for failing to give answers on digital device data slurpage

James 51

Re: Data access

Given that one of the excuses they tried to use to hold onto illegal dna info and mug shots was their IT systems were too crap to handle weeding the illegal information out without damaging the information they were suppose to have, a crap by design system isn't that far fetched.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/17/home_office_pushes_ahead_with_facial_recognition_system_despite_furore_over_innocent_mugshots/

James 51

The average time taken to examine the devices (along with the minimum and maximum) would be interesting to know. Ever get the feeling the police are taking all this stuff because they feel like they should but haven't got a clue what to do with it?

Munich council: To hell with Linux, we're going full Windows in 2020

James 51
Linux

Should be developing web based stuff so it can run on any platform. When I was hired that's what we were doing. Migrating apps from VB6 to Java backended websites.

Firefox 57: Good news? It's nippy. Bad news? It'll also trash your add-ons

James 51

Re: I always wanted to be an organ grinder's monkey

Legacy support was making firefox slow and unstable. They had to let something go eventually or be stuck in a tar pit of their own making.

Uber loses appeal against UK employment rights for workers

James 51

Re: Surely...

With zero security contracts you still have to turn up but the 'employer' is free to sent you home for free (to them). Sort of a reverse uber if you will.

Metal 3D printing at 100 times the speed and a twentieth of the cost

James 51

Re: Inject printers cheaper than Laser printers

That's what the like of the ecotank are for.

NASA shoots for 200Mbps networks on swarming satellites

James 51
Coat

They could be called wiskers, but Seaquest them to it.

US government seizes Texas gun mass murder to demand backdoors

James 51

Re: "Preventing agents from accessing devices in criminal investigations should not be allowed"

Except in the UK were the police can send you to jail for five years for not handing over your password. Then when you get out, they can ask you again.

Boffins: We can identify you by your typing, and we're gonna sell the tech to biz, govt – yay!

James 51

Would using a physical keyboard make a difference? A stylus? Another good reason to disable java script. BTW no website needs to I'D me unless I am buying something. Then I'll handing over a unique I'D and password and they will know it's me.

You know what's coming next: FBI is upset it can't get into Texas church gunman's smartphone

James 51

Wouldn't have helped in this case. If the procedural steps had been followed he most likely wouldn't have been able to buy guns legally. He owned those weapons and his fingerprints would still fire them if such a technology was in place.

Londoners: Ready to swap your GP for an NHS vid doc app?

James 51

Re: What exactly is this supposed to save?

@Adam 52, you have to see the GP now because of paitent lead care, they are the ones that control the money. The hospital won't be paid for treating you if the GP doesn't sign off on it first. There are certainly situations like yours where this is a wasteful system but that's what they Tories have lumped us with.

Off-brand tablets look done, but big players are growing

James 51
Meh

I wouldn't mind having a 2 in 1 tablet with keyboard combo when my laptop dies. Only problem is they are going the way of netbooks. Most are crippled with a slow processor, 2 Gb of RAM and a 32 Gb eMMC and the prices are slowly creaping but (but the hammering the pound caused by brexit hasn't help) . If you could buy one minus the windows license that might cushion the blow a bit.

Your future data-centre: servers immersed in box full of oil, in a field

James 51
Joke

So Sunshine got one thing right.

America's 2020 Census systems are a $15bn cyber-security tire fire

James 51

There's stuff like that on line at the moment but you get people submitting multiple responses with multiple identities and just filling in any old guff as fast as possible so they can get to the next survey.

Hardware has never been better, but it isn't a licence for code bloat

James 51

When your logic is more exceptions than rules it can be difficult to get a smooth algorithm to cover everything.

Atto, boy! Eggheads fire laser for 43 attoseconds, fastest Man-made spurt

James 51

Re: Should be able to watch photosynthesis, too ...

Jake, you could GM more efficient chlorophyll, in fact it has already been done but you're never going to be able to grow biofuels in a carbon netural or carbon negative way on a scale needed to replace fossiel fuels. We don't really need bioengineering to feed the world. We have the technology to do that already and more techonology is coming along (such as hydroponics, vertical farms, on lad aquaculutre etc) to do it even better. It's our economic model that is the root of so many of our problems.

One-third of mobile users receive patchy to no indoor coverage

James 51

Re: And things could be improved with better phone software

On my N900 you could specify which radio you wanted it to use (feature built into the OS). Surely there's an app for that?

James 51

That's how markets work, the most return for the least investment, even if it can undermine long term viability. Regulation, enforced regulation is what will be required to change anything.

Google reveals rapid Bluetooth gadget connection tech

James 51

Obligatory XKCD:

https://xkcd.com/927/

Boffins befuddled over EU probe into UK's tax rules for multinationals

James 51
Childcatcher

Re: ha

The antics of the various brexiteers, Nigel Farage, David Davis and BoJo in particular do us no favours in dealing with the rest of the world as well.

Licensing rejig and standard price rises set for Windows Server 2016

James 51

If it is going to cost that much, particularly with redesigns, why not move to something else entirely?

Comet 67-P farted just as Rosetta probe flew through the gas plume

James 51

I think the cost of the rights to Michael Flynn's books just went up a notch.

NHS could have 'fended off' WannaCry by taking 'simple steps' – report

James 51

Re: RE: "but where does the money come form"

@Martin, sometimes it's the equipment that the stuff is hooked up to e.g. MRIs, PET scanners, digital x-rays etc etc and if they can only talk to other out of date stuff, you need to keep that out of date stuff at least as middleware.

James 51

Any chance they could include backups and testing a system restore?

Roaming charges drop smacks O2 daddy Telefonica in the profits

James 51
Trollface

You mean, the sky hasn't fallen?

Forget One Windows, Microsoft says it's time to modernize your apps

James 51

Bit of a side step but they even managed to mess up minecraft by imposing the PC UI on the xbox version. It's bloody awkward and has fewer options and fetures than the orginal. It's amazing how MS manage to make or buy a good product and then proceed to shoot themselves in the foot with a cannon.

AMD sales soar, actually makes a profit, beats expectations, share price... decimated

James 51

It will be nice to be able to buy a graphics card at not vastly inflated prices. I bet raven ridge comes out before I see a RX580 at its rrp though.

US DoJ eases gagging rules, Microsoft drops data slurp alert lawsuit

James 51
Trollface

Don't feel the troll folks.

Tories spared fine after being told off by ICO for election telemarketing

James 51
Big Brother

That's a big thumbs up for 'creative' campaining techniques then.

Boffins trapped antiprotons for days, still can't say why they survived the Big Bang

James 51
Joke

Re: anti-particles "moving backwards in time" ?

@DavCrav Have you done some of the science writing for star trek?

Plants in SPAAAAAAACE are good for you

James 51

There's been some researching about how gardening, talking walks in the countryside etc etc benefits mental health. Not a surprise it also applies in ssssppppppaaaacccccceeeee!

Pixel 2 tinkerers force Google's hand: Secret custom silicon found

James 51

Haven't used Android 8 yet but the multitasking on 6 and 7 is dire. For on device search, battery life, multitasking and lack of spyware my Q10 beats my S6.

National Audit Office: We'll be in a world of pain with '90s border tech post-Brexit

James 51
Facepalm

It's going to be a total failure. The time scale is too short and the money isn't there and perhaps most importantly the (competent) leadership isn't there. Plus with the post Brexit arrangements still undecided any project would be developing to a moving target.

What’s the real point of being a dev? It's saving management from themselves

James 51

When I was a lad 4th generation languages were Java and the like. C++ was 3.5 or 4 depending on which text book your read.

Make America late again: US 'lags' China in IT security bug reporting

James 51
Childcatcher

When the people in goverment don't believe in goverment and that private bodies should do everything, then stuff like this is going to happen. Strong leadership with an adequte budget would turn this (and even NASA for that matter) around but it's never going to happen.

You can't find tech staff – wah, wah, wah. Start with your ridiculous job spec

James 51
FAIL

The talent is out there but most businesses treat staff as a cost and do everything to drive it down. No training in case they get poached and people get treated as interchangable. Of course there is plain pig headedness. I place I worked at flushed several million down the toilet as the only person with the authority and ability was moving due to a partner's relocation and there was a strict no work from home policy (unless you were on support out of hours then you could do everything you could do in the office from the comfort of your couch). Years later no one had either the courage or the authority to pick that baton up.

Samsung to let proper Linux distros run on Galaxy smartmobes

James 51

If it can run WINE then it will be very interesting to see this in action. I am assuming though it will be versions compiled specifically for the phones or ARM processors rather than a HP Elite x3 access windows desktops over the Internet type of thing.

Windows Fall Creators Update is here: What do you want first – bad news or good news?

James 51

Re: Windows 7 ... missing features

I didn't want Win 10 on my PC and my WIN 7 recovery tool saw a newer version of Windows and put its foot down. I had to erase every trace of WIN 10 before I could cajole the installer to work.

James 51

Re: Windows 7 ... missing features

I keep reading fall update as fail update. Wouldn't be the first time windows 10 has done that to me (background download and autoinstall killed a win 7 computer beyond recovery. Had to install linux to format the drive and get win 7 back on).

James 51
FAIL

Can we completely disable one drive?

Can we completely disable Cortana?

Can we stop it ringing the mothership and forking over all our data?

I know most people out there don't give a damm about this but it still bugs the hell out of me that the OS manufactures are allowed to force their 'customers' to spy on them to some extent if they want to basically buy a modern computer. Imagine if car manufactures force people to hand over all location data, info on who was in the car at all times and full audio and possibly video of people in the car and its surroundings.

The Google Home Mini: Great, right up until you want to smash it in fury

James 51

Re: Silly Valley

Orac and Avon, it was always funny watching them spar.